


Sleeping through time

by thingwithfeathers



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Because Stiles is awesome, Fluff, Full Shift Werewolves, Hurt Peter, Lost Memories, M/M, Sane Peter Hale, Self-Discovery, Sheriff Stilinski Finds Out About Werewolves, Sheriff Stilinski Ships It, Steter - Freeform, Steter Week, Time Travel, Young Peter Hale, and will get them, helpful Stiles, love that tag, peter deserves all the hugs, thoughts about sex and sexual orientation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-06-17 04:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 65,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15453219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thingwithfeathers/pseuds/thingwithfeathers
Summary: Peter runs away from home after a falling out with his alpha. She has done something to his mind, and he doesn’t want to stay for her to do more damage. He finds himself in front of a giant tree stump deep into the preserve and thinks it’s a perfect place to rest for the night. Before falling asleep he wishes for something better, for someone who could care about him.You should be careful what you wish for. Sometimes wishes come true.Stiles is running through the woods because he can’t sleep. Maybe exercise will work. It feels right. And nothing happens in Beacon Hills.It feels like he has miscalculated terribly when he hears the first scream. But he runs towards it anyway.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Woo! I managed to actually contribute something to Steter week! Day six, time travel.

Peter was stumbling through the woods. He could barely breathe. Talia had stolen something from him. His sister, his alpha, had done something to him. He didn’t know why and he couldn’t understand what he possibly could have done for her to betray him like that.

There were holes in his mind. Hours, possibly days that were missing. And when he had gone to Talia for help she had just begged him to let it be. To live his life. To forget. He didn’t need more than that to know that she was the culprit.

His sister. His god damn alpha!

Peter did what every respectable teenager with heartbreak do.

He ran away.

He had tried to be sneaky about it too, as sneaky as one could be when running away without plan or resources. He had managed to wait until the pack had fallen asleep at least, he didn’t want anybody to find him too soon. His alpha had betrayed him, she deserved to worry. If she even cared. Gods, she did care? Or was this just the first step of pushing him away? Maybe he hadn’t even done anything, she had just made these holes in his mind so he would leave. Maybe she thought that he didn’t fit her pack anymore.

He was too snarky, too sarcastic, too independent.

What kind of beta wanted to travel the world after all? Even if Peter wanted to travel to unravel secrets and gather information to make the pack stronger. He still wanted the freedom to leave.

Maybe Talia thought it was best if he just broke off entirely, and make him be the bad guy for leaving.

Because it would look bad if the prodigal alpha expelled her own brother, wouldn’t it? But if Peter left by his own accord… Nobody would blame Talia for that. He had always been difficult after all. Never quite settling in.

As his thoughts spiraled to more and more depressing conclusions he realized that he had reached a place to stop.

It was a giant tree trunk. The tree must have been massive when it was alive. There was a soothing kind of energy in the air. It felt electric. He didn’t know what the tree had been, but he was sure it held some kind of magic. Talia would probably know.

He sneered, Talia didn’t deserve his questions. Not anymore. And he didn’t get any ill feelings from the tree, so he decided he would spend the night. He could survive one night out in the open, and well, maybe the magic could help him.

Maybe he could get his memories back.

Or maybe he could get some kind of hint on what to do next. Magic trees granting wishes was a thing? Right? And even if this one was gravely wounded it still held magic. He was sure of that. And it couldn’t hurt soaking some of that up. Surely Talia would have warned the pack if there was a threat in the preserve.

Maybe she took that memory too?

Fuck it, he didn’t get any bad vibes. He would stop doubting himself. Talia didn’t deserve to make him this insecure. He was an apex predator. Nothing here could possibly be a threat he couldn’t handle.

With a huff, he curled up inside a nook some of the bigger roots had made. It was comfortable enough. He felt impossibly safe. Like the tree would look out for him. It was late, he had had a really bad day. It would be fine to just rest for a while. He was convinced that the tree would keep him safe.

He fell asleep wishing for something better, wishing for somebody who could understand him, wishing for somebody he could trust unconditionally.

He didn’t see the warm glow from the tree. He didn’t see how it engulfed him in a bright cocoon as the magic settled around him. He did feel when the bonds to his pack broke thought. But then it was too late.

He woke up screaming.

~ ~ ~

Stiles was running through the woods. It was the first night of the summer and he hadn’t been able to settle down to sleep. Two whole months without school! And he would get to work a few hours a week with his dad to earn some well-needed cash to get his jeep up and running. And maybe even get to help solve crimes with his excellent skills in deduction. This summer would be awesome! Well, it would be more awesome if Scott wasn’t visiting his grandparents for the next few weeks but Stiles could make do. He had a jeep to fix. How hard could it be?

His dad would probably frown upon him running in the preserve close to midnight, but hell, he had too much energy and this was the last resort. He had read that exercise could help with sleep, so he had decided to try running. Nothing ever happened in Beacon Hills anyway. And it just felt right running in the woods.

He kind of regretted that thought when he heard the scream. He stumbled to a halt, that was absolutely not normal, or safe.

Someone was in utter agony, way out in the woods.

Stiles didn’t know what to do. Would anybody else hear this? Shit, what if somebody was getting murdered? It absolutely sounded like it. Damn, he should run away, but… No. Somebody needed help, he couldn’t just leave.

He started running towards the sound, it didn’t sound far away. He managed to get his phone out on the way but didn’t stop to actually call somebody. That would have to wait until he knew what was going on. 

He was terrified but he didn’t stop. The screaming did. That was even more terrifying. He stumbled into a clearing before he could really process what the silence could mean. It was dominated by a gigantic tree stump, and trembling in front of it was a boy. He was utterly alone, and he was in severe distress. Stiles rushed to his side, more or less falling down on his knees beside him and frantically looked for where the boy was injured.

“Hey, god, are you all right? Well, you are clearly not all right, stupid question, but are you hurt? Did somebody do something? Should I call my dad? I should call my dad. I should have called him when I first heard you. Why didn’t I call earlier? God, I’m so stupid, are you hurt? Do you need an ambulance? Can even an ambulance get here? Shit, I really should just call my dad, he knows what to do.” Stiles couldn’t really see anything physically wrong with the kid, except that he looked like his world had ended and then some. Stiles wasn’t sure if the boy could hear him, he didn’t make any signs that he was aware of Stiles’ presence. But when he started fumbling with his phone a lightning fast hand grabbed his in an iron grip.

“Don’t,” the boy said. His voice raw from screaming earlier and maybe a tiny bit wobbly. Stiles didn’t judge. Frankly, he was mostly relieved that the boy was not bleeding out and that it seemed like the screaming didn’t really be anywhere close to murder-related.

“Okay… No calling dad, got it. Are you sure? You kind of look like you could use some help, and well… I think maybe my dad would be better at it than me, he is the sheriff you know, it’s kind of his job to help people.” As Stiles looked the boy over he became aware of the fact that he was unfairly beautiful. Sure, he looked like he had woken up from the worst kind of nightmare, but he was stunning. He was lean and muscly and had a strong jaw and high cheekbones and the most intense blue eyes Stiles had ever seen. He suddenly realized that he was staring and probably looked a bit like a goldfish. He shrugged a bit embarrassed.

“I’m Stiles by the way, what’s your name?”

~ ~ ~

Peter’s mind was reeling. He didn’t really understand what was going on. He couldn’t have been asleep for long, it was still in the middle of the night, but it felt like he had slept for ages. And the absence of his pack was throbbing in his chest. It felt like something had burned a hole where his bonds should be. It was nothing like when his grandparents had died of old age. It had to been done by force. He really hoped he had been severed from the pack, even if Talia went there way faster than he had expected. Because the alternative… The alternative made him want to howl at the moon and shift to a wolf and never shift back. He kind of wanted to shift as it was, but there was a human present, so a lifelong lesson of never revealing what they were took precedent. Why was there a human present? He hadn’t really listened, everything was way too raw, but he had at least managed to stop the kid from calling for even more humans.

Wait, he said he was the sheriff’s kid? He didn’t know the sheriff had a son. Peter should have known that. One who was about the same age as Peter too. That was way too good information to not know. Did Talia take that memory too? Damn, everything was too fucked up, he really needed to get a grip on things. Wait, the kid had asked him something… His name? Right, he could do that, his name was harmless.

“…Peter, my name is Peter. Sorry, I kind of missed yours? And you are the sheriff’s kid? I didn’t know sheriff Williams had a son.” He thought he managed to sound reasonably normal, considering he was lying on the ground, and still hadn’t stopped trembling from waking up without his pack. At least he didn’t cry. He stared at the other boy unabashedly as he spoke, he was gorgeous, even if he had hidden his lean body in baggy training gear and sported an unfortunate buzz cut. But he had amazing brown eyes that looked at Peter in concern, and the most adorable dark moles that made his skin look even paler. Peter kind of wanted to lick him, but this was probably not a good situation to try to flirt.

“Stiles, my name is Stiles Stilinski. But it was years since Williams was the sheriff. Are you sure you don’t need an ambulance? At least let me help you get up. I think you are in shock, shock can mess with memory right? Wait, if you are in shock you should stay down. Right? Shit, I have no idea, please stop me talking anytime now.” Peter could only gape as the kid rambled on, suddenly losing all inclinations of seduction of any sort. Williams was not sheriff? What the hell had Talia done to him?

“Stiles, I’m all right. Well. Sort of anyway. I think I need to get home though… Do you think you could help with that? …I’m a bit shaky.” A bit was a grave understatement. Peter felt weak as a kitten. Getting expelled from his pack… He was kind of glad Stiles had come along. He was something to hang on too. He couldn’t lose it in front of the human, he just couldn’t. Damn, he would go omega if he didn’t get back into the pack. Or found a new one. How could Talia just boot him out? In just a few hours? They should all be asleep! Had they just waited for him to leave? Did he even want to see her again?

“If you are certain…?” Stiles sounded insecure but helped him up anyway. Peter probably leaned more on him than he would have normally, but well. The contact was grounding. The kid was about the same height as him, but kind of skinny. But not weak, he took Peters weight without complaint.

“What the hell happened to you?” Stiles asked as they started to walk. Peter took a moment to answer. He couldn’t really tell the boy the truth and it was hard to find a reasonable explanation.

“Nightmare… Well, more of a night terror really.” He tried to sound ashamed, sometimes that worked as a way to drop the subject.

“Oh. Okay. Why did you sleep way out here anyway?”

“I ran away.” He smiled ruefully. “I didn’t really think it through.”

They walked in silence for a while. Stiles seemed like he had a million questions, but refrained from saying anything. Peter thought it was probably not like Stiles at all, but was grateful for the silence anyway. He could probably stop leaning on the other boy, he did start to feel better as they walked, but he didn’t want to. He liked the physical contact, even if it was to a stranger. And well, he wasn’t against using his perceived weakness to get close to someone either. Especially someone who looked like Stiles. 

“So… Where do you live? We are getting kind of far from my place. Do you think I could get a lift home? No, it’s late, that would really not be fair to your family. Damn, I probably need to call my dad. He will not be happy that I’m out this late. Or that I went running in the preserve. It really wasn’t one of my brightest ideas. But I’m kind of glad I could help you, at least a little. Maybe you could tell my dad I was helpful?”

Stiles looked so hopeful when he asked the last thing that Peter almost agreed without thinking it through. Damn, he really wasn’t at his best, how the hell could he explain his family to Stiles? And Talia would not be happy that he brought a witness to him confronting her about his new status. Maybe he should just take the hint and ask Stiles if they could go to his place instead. But no, he needed to at least make sure the rest of the pack was okay. Talia may resent him enough to push him out, but he still loved them. And if he explained why he had run surely at least some of them would want him back? Shit, he shouldn’t have run, he should have talked to the others. Surely Talia hadn’t gone so far off the deep end that she had started to mess with everybody’s memories?

“…Maybe.” He answered after probably way too long. “We should be home soon. You can probably stay for the night, maybe you’ll save me from getting yelled at, at least for tonight.” Peter tried to sound confident but he was feeling more and more lost as they neared his house. The surrounding nature didn’t look quite right, and it was way too quiet. And the scent was wrong. He should smell his pack. It shouldn’t just smell like the forest with a vague hint of ash.

~ ~ ~

Stiles felt Peter getting tenser as they walked. He started to believe that something more was going on than Peter let on. Why had he run away? Was his family abusive? That would explain the night terrors, but then, why did he want to go back? But did he really want to go back? And since when did anybody live in the preserve? The only house Stiles knew about was the Hale house, and that had burned several years ago. Something odd was going on. But Stiles didn’t want to be too pushy, with his luck he would cause Peter to have a panic attack, and that would really finish off a shitty day for the boy.

Stiles really hoped everything would be all right when they got to Peter’s family, but if he sensed the least bit aggressiveness he would call his dad no matter what Peter said. Nobody deserved nightmares that left them screaming the way Peter had, and if his family was the cause they simply didn’t deserve to keep him. He probably should have insisted that they called his dad, but well. If he could avoid getting in trouble at home it would be best. Maybe it was nothing, maybe Peter just had a shitty day, and he had gotten into a stupid argument or something. Stiles didn’t really know anything about night terrors, maybe they didn’t reflect real trauma. Maybe they just happened willy-nilly.

“Are you sure you want to go home? We can still call my dad, I’m sure you can stay with us for a while. We do have a spare bedroom. If things are bad at your home, I mean.” He had to at least make the offer. He felt kind of responsible for Peter even if he hadn’t really done much. Maybe hearing somebody scream like they were dying created a bond? Because Stiles felt like he had to make sure that Peter was okay. Even if he didn’t know anything about him yet.

“I have to at least see that they are okay. I dreamed… It felt like they all had died. And I know I saw most of them just a few hours ago, but I… I just have to make sure. But maybe we can go to your place after? I did have quite the argument with my sister.” He leaned more heavily on Stiles for a moment, like he needed the reassurance that Stiles was still there. Stiles hugged him closer in return. It felt good helping somebody. Hell, it felt awesome walking with another boy’s arm around his shoulder even if the reason was not really a good one. Stiles couldn’t help like the feeling anyway. And Peter was hot, maybe even in league with Lydia. It was kind of odd that Stiles hadn’t noticed him before. Maybe he was new? That could explain why he thought Williams was sheriff, he probably had lived here before his dad took office and just moved away for a few years. Yeah, that was reasonable. Maybe that could explain the night terrors too.

“Wait… You ran away because of your sister? I thought you fought with your parents. I didn’t know siblings could make you want to leave.” Well, at least he didn’t have abusive parents then. Hopefully.

“It’s complicated. My sister is almost twenty years older than me, she kind of raised me. I was a bit of a surprise to mom and dad, they didn’t really want another child I think.” Peter sounded blank like he did his utter best to not be hurt that his parents had fended him off to his older sister. Or maybe it didn’t matter anymore. Stiles couldn’t tell.

They entered a clearing before Stiles could answer, and suddenly Peter was sitting on the ground, just staring at the burned-out house in front of them. He looked like his whole world had burned down.

~ ~ ~

Peter felt his world crumble, he couldn’t believe what he saw. His house… His house wasn’t really a house anymore. It was a burned out husk, and Peter couldn’t grasp how it had happened so fast. And it looked like the fire had happened years ago. How could that be?

“How… When? How could this happen? I’ve only been gone a few hours… This is... I…” He barely managed to get the jumbled words out. It felt like he was choking.

“Hey, take it easy, this is just the Hale house, it burned down years ago. We must have gone the wrong way somewhere.” He felt Stiles kneel beside him, putting an arm around his shoulders. The words didn’t make sense. Years? Peter felt how his self-restraint flew away. He gave up a long mourning howl with flashing eyes. He couldn’t care less about how he gave their secret away to a human. His pack was gone. He didn’t know how, but someone would pay for this. He would burn the rest of the world down if necessary to get retribution. Before Peter could really get into his anger and hurt Stiles started to talk again.

“Okay, this is freaky, I really should let go, but well, if this really is your house you really need a hug and well, you haven’t eaten me yet so you can’t be that bad. What the hell are you anyway? Werewolf? I think werewolf with the howl and everything. Wait, your Peter Hale? Shit, you disappeared ages ago. Your family looked for you for ages. What happened? And how the hell is you still so young? Is it a werewolf thing?” Peter calmed down as Stiles spoke, the boy was really grounding. And smart, drawing the right conclusions from only a howl and some eye action. It was probably for the best that he knew. Peter would need allies, and Stiles seemed like a good one.

“What year is it?” Peter's voice was raw with grief, but he did his best to claw his way back. He needed to start making plans. He needed to know what happened, and then he needed to kill everyone responsible.

“It’s 2010, you mean… Time travel? Really? Woah.” Peter felt floored, sixteen years, he had somehow been asleep for sixteen years.

“When… When did this happen?”

“Five years ago. It was arson. My dad caught most of the guys responsible, but the ringleader got away. I’m sorry, but almost everyone inside died, Derek and Laura were visiting friends, so they were the only survivors. I think they live in New York now.” It was hard to take in the news, he would have been almost twenty-eight when the fire happened. Would he have made a difference? It had to be hunters, or at least the majority of the pack would have made it out. He would need to see the case files, like hell he would let the one most responsible get away.

“I think… Fuck, I don’t know what to think. My family is gone, I have apparently time traveled to the future and… I’m alone. And the last thing I said to Talia was that she was a manipulating bitch and that I would be better off alone.” He regretted that dearly. No matter what Talia had done to him, it wasn’t worth losing everyone for it.

“Hey, you have me. I don’t care if you are a time-traveling werewolf, you are a werewolf, right? You never answered that. Anyway, you’ve got me. And I’m sure my dad will help too.” Stiles hugged him closer and Peter leaned into the other boy. He was probably lucky it was Stiles that had found him but it was hard to be grateful when he just found out that his pack was gone. But at least Stiles didn’t freak out because of the werewolf thing. At least he had that.

~ ~ ~

Stiles forced himself to be quiet as he waited for Peter to answer, trying to be comforting. He was way outside his comfort zone, but he did his best. He thought it was working as he felt Peter lean into him. It was kind of nice.

“Yeah… I’m a werewolf. My whole family was. Well, most of us anyway.” Woah, this was major. And it was probably the motive of the fire too. Stiles could see how someone would hate the thought of werewolves enough to want to kill them. People killed for fewer reasons all the time.

 “Can we tell my dad? I’m guessing the werewolf thing is kind of secret since nobody knows and all, but I think we need to tell my dad for him to be able to help you.” Shit, Peter needed a new ID, he couldn’t really come back as the missing boy from the nineties. Not if they wanted to keep the supernatural a secret. And he needed somewhere to live. Would his dad agree to let him stay with them?

“Will he help me find whoever did this to my family?”

“Absolutely! At least if you give him a reason to. And your family being werewolves will definitely warrant a new look on the case. It was never closed as they didn’t get the one who planned the whole thing, but dad had to put it aside when all evidence turned cold. But he keeps an eye out for similar cases nationwide, but as far as I know, it hasn’t lead anywhere.” Stiles didn’t tell Peter that his father still blamed himself for not getting the ringleader. He was convinced that they had gotten away because he had still been dealing with the loss of his wife. Stiles didn’t think so, his dad had dealt poorly with her death, but he had never compromised his job. Sometimes he had been kind of neglecting Stiles, but he had never done anything but his best for the sheriff’s department.

“And he won’t shoot me? Humans usually don’t like things that are scarier than they are.” Stiles was weirdly proud that he had managed to suppress his fear as quickly as he had. It was probably because Peter was in such anguish, it was really hard to be scared of somebody who needed somebody’s help and sympathy as much as Peter did.

“I promise he won’t shoot you. Well, as long as you promise not to hurt him… Or well, me. I think he would shoot you in self-defense and if you attacked me. Well, probably if you attacked anyone, but for sure if you attacked me.” Stiles didn’t think Peter would hurt him, but he thought it was best to at least warn the guy. His dad could be really protective sometimes.

“As long as you or your dad didn’t help kill my pack you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Stiles noted that Peter didn’t give any promises to not hurt anybody, and that was probably fair. If somebody killed his dad, he would probably be pretty violent too.

“Well, that I can promise. So I should call my dad? Man, he will be so pissed at me. Do you want to wait here or should we walk towards the town?” Stiles wanted to leave, the burned out Hale house had always been a bit creepy, eleven people died there after all, but it was even worse when he was with someone who knew them. Who was one of them. And Stiles wasn’t sure that Peter had really grasped the reality of the situation yet. Hell, Stiles couldn’t really understand what was happening, and he had only found the time traveling werewolf with a murdered family.

“I think we should leave, and either walk to your place our call your dad. You decide.” Peter sounded defeated like he didn’t want to think anymore. Stiles could understand that and silently helped him up.

He called his dad as they started walking towards the town on the neglected road from the house. His dads didn’t like Stiles being out at all, but he did at least agree to wait with the reprimands until he had heard the whole story. So there was that. He also promised to come to pick them up where the road left the preserve. Stiles hoped that they would be able to postpone the interrogation until the next day. He felt like he would crash at any minute, and he guessed Peter didn’t fare any better. Peter probably fared worse, to be honest, his day had really gone from bad to astronomically catastrophic. Stiles made sure to hold Peter close as they walked, physical contact seemed to help at least a little. And Stiles wanted to help. He felt connected and was really glad that he was the one who had found the boy when he needed someone.

Maybe it was a bit selfish of him, but he wanted more time with Peter. He hadn’t felt like he felt for him for anyone other than Lydia, and man was it surprising to feel like that for another boy. He definitely needed to think some more on that before doing anything. In the meanwhile, he could be a friend. Peter could absolutely use one right now, and Stiles was awesome at the friend thing. At least Scott thought so, and Scott was the best person Stiles knew, well after his father of course. Nobody was better than his dad.

~ ~ ~

Peter had a hard time accepting his new reality. His pack was dead, he had somehow traveled sixteen years into the future and somehow agreed to tell the current sheriff that werewolves were real. And before all of that his alpha, dead alpha, god Talia, had done something to his memories and now there was probably no way of getting them back. And the last thing he had said to her had been horrible. And so untrue. He wasn’t better off alone, how could he have said that? It was miserable being alone. He hated it, hated not having any bonds, hated feeling like somebody had ripped his soul out of his body. How could humans live like this always?

He was deep in thought when they got to the end of the road, Stiles blessedly silent beside him. They both startled at the sound of a car door opening and suddenly Peter saw a tall man running towards them, looking seriously worried. Well, they probably did make a sorry sight, Peter more or less hanging on Stiles' shoulders, and probably looking as bad as he felt.

“Stiles! Son, what the hell happened?!” Somehow Peter got manhandled to lean on the man instead of Stiles, who kind of slumped against his dad looking exhausted.

“Well… It’s kind of a long story. Can we please go home first? Peter has had a really stupidly bad day and I think I could fall asleep standing.”

“Peter huh? Well, I don’t know what kind of trouble you are in, but how about we get you two inside and into a bed and then we can deal with it tomorrow. Sounds good? I’m Noah Stilinski by the way, county sheriff.”

Peter could only nod. He was incredibly relieved that he didn’t have to answer any questions. Everything was too much. He quietly got ushered into the back of the cruiser secretly grateful that Stiles got in beside him, grabbing hold of his hand as a reassurance. He barely managed to stay awake at the drive to the Stilinski residence but it was a near thing. He was barely aware when he was nudged into a house, up some stairs and then finally into a room that smelled clean but unused. It had a bed though, with clean linens and Peter fell asleep as soon as he got under the covers, only getting out of his shoes and jacket before getting into bed.

Peter didn’t see the curious look the sheriff gave him before turning down the light and closing the door. There was a hint of recognition in that look, and a large dose of disbelief. There was also a promise of questions being asked later, but the sheriff let it be for the night. He wasn’t a cruel man, and it didn’t hurt him to let both his delinquent son and his found stray sleep before getting answers. Mostly he was grateful that Stiles had called him and not tried to get them home by himself. Beacon Hills was a quiet town, but he didn’t like the thought of what kind of trouble two teenagers could get into when they were both too tired to be careful. Kids had gone missing before. Actually… Peter did remind him of one of those missing kids… He needed to get back to the station and do some digging. He left a note on the refrigeration telling Stiles not to go anywhere before he got back, then drove back to the sheriff’s department to finish off his shift.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back home! So will probably write a lot more now. Managed 3k words on two days, so I am kind of proud of that. 
> 
> Thank you for all your lovely comments and kudos! They absolutely make my day and makes me want to write more.

Peter didn’t sleep well. It was not surprising since somehow he had slept away years and woken up without pack or family. At first he dreamt about the fire. It was hot and everything was burning and he was stuck and he knew his family was burning with him. He somehow also knew that it was a dream, but it didn’t help, there were flames everywhere and he couldn’t get away. Then suddenly there was a soothing presence next to him, a cool damp hand across his forehead and as he sought out the comfort he associated with the boy who had found him he calmed and he lost awareness of the dream.

The bad dreams did come back throughout the night, but there was always the calming presence of Stiles grounding him so they didn’t stay long. But he wasn’t really his best when morning came. Only Stiles using him as some kind of teddy bear made the morning bearable. He was glad it was Stiles clinging to him and not the other way around, way less risk of him accidentally hurting the boy like this. He didn’t dare to move and risk waking him up. He knew it was wrong to latch on to a human, a stranger really, this way but he didn’t feel like he had a choice. He had lost his family, only Laura and Derek were left and gods know where. And they would be way older now, older than him. If they even were still alive. Peter couldn’t feel them at all, but maybe their connection hadn’t survived the years he had slept. Or maybe the trauma of the fire had burned them away. He wondered if it was worse feeling the bonds snapping one after another while helpless to do anything about it or all at once as it had been for him. Probably the former, Peter would have run straight into the fire if there had been any hope what so ever for him to save just one from his family. And if there had been hunters there… That would not have accomplished anything.

He wondered where their emissary had been. He wasn’t exactly sure who it was, it had been something kept between the alpha, her second and the emissary, but surely they should have been able to do something? Wasn’t the whole deal with emissaries to prevent things like the fire to happen in the first place? Maybe they died too; Peter almost hoped that they did. He really needed to get all the information on the fire he could, because hunters shouldn’t burn peaceful packs down. Not in modern America. That was some medieval European shit right there. Well, sure, it wasn’t like everything had been great before the civil war, but hunters and the supernatural had made peace with the founding of the United States. There had been treaties and everything.

Well… There had been rumors about hunters getting more aggressive, but they always seemed to have at least some sort of excuse for their violence. What possible excuse could there be to execute a whole pack, children included? Eleven dead, with Laura and Derek surviving, and Peter gone… That had to mean that there had been more children born into the pack. Or maybe Talia had taken in people from outside the immediate family. Either way, how could anyone defend killing so many people? And Peter couldn’t believe that Talia would ever do anything that would sick hunters on all of them. Sure, she had done something to him, but hunters didn’t care about what werewolves did to each other as long as it didn’t affect humans.

Shit, had hunters gone after them because Peter disappeared? Had Talia thought that hunters had had anything to do with it and started something? But no, Stiles had said that the fire was a few years ago, so it was way too long after he left for it to have anything to do with him. Well. Probably. He should probably look up the news between his departure and the fire to see if the pack had lost their way. Or he could get in contact with Laura and Derek. He should get in contact with them. Laura was most certainly the alpha, and he really wanted one. But would he be able to handle them being older than him? He dozed off trying to imagine how Laura and Derek would have turned out as adults, grounded by Stiles' head on his chest, his breath calm and even.

~ ~ ~

When Stiles woke up everything was odd. The bed was all wrong, there was another person in the bed and he was sort of wrapped around said person with his head pressed against their chest. It was nice but strange… Maybe some sort of lucid dream? He absentmindedly patted the other person’s chest. Mmm… muscly. The thought made him crash-land into reality. Since when were muscles good? It took a moment before his brain actually caught up with yesterday’s adventures.

Peter.

He was cuddling Peter, and liked it. He was suddenly feeling guilty about Lydia, it felt like he was betraying his ten-year plan to woo her. That wasn’t really working, but he had high hopes for the next semester. He was fairly sure she had started to notice that he had almost as high grades as she had. He thought he could probably exceed her in some subjects, and then she would maybe want to study with him? And he could buy her lunch and they could start talking about other things… Like… What did you talk to girls about? Shoes? Stiles didn’t know anything about shoes, should he start researching shoes just in case? Like why women wore high heels? That couldn’t possibly be comfortable. Maybe Lydia would like a foot massage? She always had very impractical shoes. He should research that too.

Maybe Peter could help?

Right, Peter. Cuddling Peter… Maybe this was platonic cuddling? That was a thing, yes? At least he didn’t sport morning wood, that would be embarrassing on a whole different level than just the cuddling was. The cuddling… The cuddling was actually really nice. He liked hearing Peters heart beat steadily as he slept, confirming that he didn’t dream about anything horrible. The terrified whimpers that had actually brought Stiles to Peter’s side the night before had been horrifying.

Fuck, Peter lost his whole family the day before. And his last memories of them were that they had an argument. Stiles could sort or relate to that. Was it worse to just wish that somebody would just die already or to actually have their last words being spoken in anger and hurt? At least Stiles never actually did say anything awful to his mom no matter what she said to him.

He burrowed a bit closer to Peter, taking comfort in his warmth. He was warmer than Stiles was, probably a werewolf thing. Or did he have a fever? Could werewolves get sick? And was it really okay to cuddle with somebody without consent? Probably not, even if it did seem to help. He started to carefully extract himself from the other boy but before he was halfway out of the bed Peter woke up and grabbed hold of him and made a growling type of sound. Stiles froze.

“Uhh… Sorry about this, I didn’t really mean to get so clingy on you but well… You sounded distressed as I walked out of the showers so I went to check on you and that sort of helped and then I tried to leave, promise, but you really didn’t like that so I sort of got into the bed with you… And I thought that maybe some human contact would help against nightmares maybe. But I didn’t intend to go all octopus on you, that has never happened before. And now I’m babbling… Well, that does tend to happen, it’s probably just as good that you get used to that.” Stiles was getting more and more embarrassed as he talked, but he just couldn’t stop. And Peter just looked at him, with a sort of confused, heartbroken look on his face but with the tiniest hint of amusement too. At least he didn’t look angry.

“…Thank you.” 

That… That was not the response Stiles had expected. But the thank you was probably more for helping with nightmares than for babbling first thing in the morning. And well, maybe Peter liked cuddling? Stiles was definitely for it but wasn’t sure if he would manage to continue with it while awake without getting awkward. It probably already was awkward, he should probably say something. Like anything. Why the hell did his brain decides to blank on him now? He had talked Peter’s ears of just a second ago.

~ ~ ~

Peter slowly loosened his grip on Stiles, it wasn’t right to force him to stay, but he had been so comfortable and then panicked when he felt the other boy starting to leave. He couldn’t bear to actually let go, but Stiles would be able to get away if he wanted to. Peter waited a bit for Stiles to start talking again, but the silence was starting to get awkward and Stiles' heart was beating way too fast so Peter decided that it was probably best if he tried to salvage the situation. And Stiles deserved some information because he was the closest thing to pack Peter had at the moment.

“Physical contact helps. Werewolves… We need a pack, without one we can sort of lose our humanity and become the feral beasts so many stories tell about us. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t found me last night… I’m glad you did. So thank you for finding me, helping me. And thank you for not leaving me alone. I dreamt… Well… You helped a lot. I probably should try and find either Laura and Derek or some other pack… But I would be really grateful if I could stay with you for a day or two.” Peter didn’t want to just stay a day or two, he kind of wanted to move in, claim Stiles as pack and then hunt down anyone who had hurt his family and kill them. It was a nice dream, but sadly probably not feasible. And maybe Laura had already gotten the revenge Peter craved, she had had years after all.

“So you are okay cuddling with me? I didn’t force myself on you or something?” Stiles actually sounded worried, like he was afraid he had done something wrong.

“I like it, I wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise.” Peter tried to smile up at Stiles, it probably came out a bit wobbly but well. Peter was a bit broken at the moment. And he should probably let that show to increase the probability that he would be allowed to stay. Stiles responded by flopping down on him and burrowing close.

“…I’m glad I could help.” He murmured against Peter's chest. “It’s kind of nice… I don’t usually get to cuddle. I don’t know why everyone thinks that boys don’t like cuddling because this is awesome. Maybe mom would… But well, it’s just me and dad now, and dad is many awesome things but cuddly is not one of them.”

There was a whiff of sadness to Stiles’ scent when he mentioned his mother, so Peter decided not to ask about her. He just manhandled the boy a bit so he ended up with his arms around him in turn. He was a bit lost for words. The hole in his chest was still burning, but it was easier to ignore with Stiles in his arms. But he needed to say something.

“Do you think your dad will let me stay?” Hell, they should probably get up before the man woke up. Peter could hear his steady heartbeat if he focused and so far it seemed like he was asleep. Peter didn’t know how the sheriff would react if he found his son in bed with the rescued stranger. At least the covers had been pushed down a bit so it was clear that they both had clothes on. It still probably looked way more sexualized than it was.

“Absolutely. I will bribe him with bacon if I have to, but he is a good guy, no way would he just toss you out on the streets.” Stiles started to sound sleepy. He had probably not slept well either.

“…How do you bribe someone with bacon?” Peter contemplated to try an poke Stiles awake for real, they really should get up.

“Well… I usually don’t let him have any, I want him to live at least until I’m fifty and with his job being stressful as it is… I just want him to eat healthily is all. And he cheats enough when he eats at the station, but I can control breakfast.” Stiles gave away a worried scent and his heartbeat was a bit too fast for Peter’s liking.

“Well, I don’t want to be the cause of his untimely demise, that doesn’t seem like a fair reward for helping me.” Peter decides to try and smell if there is any lingering sickness in the sheriff’s scent. He didn’t catch anything the day before, but then, his senses were probably a bit numbed by the chock. He still didn’t feel like he was back to basic, probably because he was alone. Lone wolves were always weaker than ones in a pack.

“Bacon once in a while is okay, as long as it isn’t every day or too much.” Stiles was starting to sound sleepy again. Maybe it was okay to just sleep some more. They really should get up but Peter was not ready to let go of the other boy. It felt like he would be brought back to his terrible new reality if they left the bed, and he really didn’t want that.

~ ~ ~

Consensual cuddling was way better than sneaky cuddling. Stiles approved. But it was way harder to stay awake when he wasn’t worried he was taking advantage. And now Peter seemed to have dozed off too. They really should out off the bed. He didn’t even know what time it was, but at least the sun was up and who knew when his dad would get up? He did go back to the station the night before, but he should have only had a few hours left on his shift. And he did sleep way too little after a night shift, so he would probably want to have breakfast with them. And wait… He must have checked in on them when he got home, and he must have noticed that Stiles didn’t sleep in his own bed… Man, it was going to be a really awkward breakfast. Not only would they need to explain the whole werewolf thing… And how cool was that? Werewolves! Who had traveled through time! Peter was like Captain America! Well, instead of being stuck in ice he had fallen asleep in a forest. But well… Werewolf! He probably was super strong too.

And sixteen years… Stiles had barely been born when Peter disappeared, Peter had missed everything that had happened Stiles whole life. Stiles would have to teach him everything. Had he used the internet? He must know at least what a computer was, even if they were way better now. Did he even know what a cell phone was? Peter hadn’t really reacted to it the night before, but well… He had just found out that his family was dead; it wouldn’t be weird if he missed some things. Would Peter even care about all the new stuff? His family was dead; maybe he wouldn’t be interested in anything else. Stiles tried to remember when his mom died, it was kind of hard. Everything until the funeral was kind of blurry… But after… He thought he had spent quite a lot of time with Scott, reading comics and playing video games. So distraction could be good, and if Peter wanted to talk Stiles would make sure to listen. And of course, make sure to help Peter find any information that was available. Dad would help with that too. And now Stiles was awake. And needed to pee. And stuck, because Peter was hugging him. Which was nice, but well. Bladder.

“Hey… Peter.” Stiles poked him in his side.

“Ghnn, noo… Just a little longer.” Stiles felt bad for waking him, he could relate to wanting to sleep the awful things away.

“You can sleep some more, but I really need to pee.”  Stiles squirmed a bit; it was starting to get quite urgent.

“Mmm… Right… Sorry.” Peter let go of him, and Stiles was off the bed and out of the room, nearly barging into his dad’s room before remembering that he had slept in the guest room, so the bathroom was not in the usual spot. Well, it was, but well. Anyway.

He took care of business, and after he had brushed his teeth he searched for a new toothbrush for Peter. He found one deep inside a cabinet, and man, they really needed to buy some new ones. When was the last time he changed his toothbrush? Or his dad did? Well, his dad did have his own bathroom so Stiles couldn’t be sure. But he thought it probably was some time ago. He took the unused toothbrush, gathered a fresh towel and then some clean clothes, he was sure Peter would like to shower and change. He hoped his would fit Peter, and that it wasn’t too weird loaning out underwear. Well, they could go buy new clothes after breakfast if Peter wanted to. He also got changed out of his PJs, throwing on some comfy jeans and a graphic tee, consciously not caring what he picked. Because it didn’t matter how he looked, he wanted to be friends with Peter. Looks didn’t matter to friends. He put on one of his nicer hoodies, just as an afterthought. Maybe caring a little, but only a little.

~ ~ ~

Peter listened to Stiles fumbling his way through his morning ritual. Well, he didn’t shower, but that was probably because he had done so before going to bed. He contemplated leaving the bed; it wasn’t nearly as comfortable staying there alone. He felt the hole his pack had left him a lot more desperately when Stiles left, and that made him listen in on Stiles a lot more than was actually polite. He was grateful that Stiles didn’t masturbate at least. That could have been embarrassing later. If Peter actually told Stiles how good his senses were. Well, how good they used to be. It was hard focusing on anything else than the big nothingness in his chest. He really wanted Stiles back, his presence helped way more than Peter had thought.

Fuck, his pack was dead. Talia and Joseph… Violet and Andrew, their kids… Probably his parents too, if they hadn’t died earlier. And some new ones that Peter probably hadn’t known. He wondered why so many people had been in the house, it had been a big house, but it seemed excessive to have thirteen people living together. Maybe it had been a gathering for the extended pack. But that would usually just mean more humans. Why would hunters want to kill humans? Nothing made sense. He really needed to read the files on the fire. He needed to know who had been there. Stiles dad would probably help with that. If he didn’t shoot him. Stiles had seemed so sure that the sheriff wouldn’t do such a thing, but if hunters who should follow a code could murder a whole pack… Then who knew how a human without any prior knowledge would react?

Peter wanted Stiles to come back. Maybe he should just get up and go to him. He seemed to be going through his closet at the moment. Peter hoped that he could borrow some clothes. It had been a mistake to fall asleep without getting out of at least his jeans. Too late to do anything about it now, but he really wanted to change to new ones. Why didn’t he take a bag with him when he left home? Well, he hadn’t actually planned to be gone for good, and well, he did take money with him. The cash should still be good, maybe worth a bit less but he should be able to afford at least some new clothes. Did he still have access to the pack funds? Probably not. But the vault should still be here, and hopefully Laura and Derek hadn’t picked it clear. Peter had hidden some quite valuable books in there. It would hurt to sell them, but well, he couldn’t really use magic anyway so he could part with them if necessary.

There was a brief knock on the door before Stiles walked in, not really necessary since Peter had heard him coming but nevertheless polite. He had changed into jeans and a plaid hoodie, the t-shirt underneath had some kind of print on it. The jeans were tighter than Peter had ever contemplated wearing but other than that the look was surprisingly similar to something from what he was used to. He looked good.

“I got you some clothes, a toothbrush, and a towel if you want to shower and change? I wasn’t sure my jeans would fit, so I got you some sweatpants, is that okay? You can go through my wardrobe later to find something better if you want; I just thought that you would like something comfortable after sleeping in jeans. I hate sleeping in jeans… And I’m rambling again. Damn it.”

Stiles looked kind of adorable when he flushed, and Peter felt better only having him in the same room.

“Thank you, I would appreciate a shower yes.” He slowly got up from the bed. “I do have some cash so maybe we could go shopping later? I think I should put a little more thought into actually packing a bag if I ever want to run away again.”

“Well, yeah. That was poor planning from you, it’s like you didn’t expect to actually sleep more than a decade away.” Stiles teased him, and then immediately looked guilty.

“Mhmm, I will avoid the magic tree next time too.” He smiled a bit, trying to set the other boy at ease. It wasn’t the time travel that had hurt him; it was that his pack was dead. The time travel bit was kind of awesome, and well… He liked Stiles; if his pack hadn’t died he would probably have been over the moon for the chance to get to know him.

“Sound reasonable. But I kind of hope you will stay a while. At least until we find out what happened, right?” Stiles sounded hopeful.

“Sure, as long as your dad is okay with it, and I get to shower first.” Peter gathered the bundle of clothes from Stiles, “now, the bathroom is next door right?” Well, Peter knew it was, he had heard Stiles there after all, but it seemed polite to ask.

“Yeah, go ahead. I will start making breakfast, just come down to the kitchen when you are done. We have a laundry room downstairs too if you want to wash your clothes.”

“Sounds like a plan. See you in a bit.” With that Peter exited the room and went to freshen up. He didn’t take long, wanting to get back to Stiles as soon as possible. But he felt immensely better after he had showered and brushed his teeth. The new clothes were good too, the tee probably way tighter than on Stiles, but well. Peter liked his muscles and had always worn clothes a bit tighter than was fashionable. Girls seemed to like it, maybe Stiles would too? Well, maybe he shouldn’t flirt with his savior. That could get real awkward if Stiles was straight. Could he ask that? He had never really done anything with a boy before; it had not been worth the hassle since he liked girls too. He had planned to wait until college to experiment, way less chance of negative fallback on his family that way. But Stiles… He liked him. He felt right. But he should probably take it slow; make sure it wasn’t just the burning hole in his chest that made him want to pounce on the boy. That could get awkward fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I had a plan of getting to introduce the supernatural to the sheriff this chapter, but well. Then cuddling happened. I'm not sorry. 
> 
> I do have a [tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/), come say hi.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a bit late. I know I haven't exactly set a schedule or anything, but well. I will try to update once a week. But some weeks are better than others, and this was not a good one. Comments and kudos help enormously with motivation so thank you all for that. 
> 
> And if you are reading my other wip, I'm sorry, it's not abandoned I promise.

Noah had been forced to evaluate his worldview. Not only had his son been running out in the preserve, by himself, in the middle of the night. And God knows how often he had been doing that. Noah had thought that he would be safe from Stiles doing moronic things with Scott away, not that he would do them by himself. And on top of being out, alone, in the middle of the night, Stiles had also somehow stumbled on another boy lost in the woods. Or well, Noah presumed he had been lost, or had run away from home or something. God, he hoped it wasn’t drugs. It was concerning whatever it was. More concerning was that he had looked like he’d been gone through some traumatic shit before Noah got to them.  As Stiles didn’t sport the same haunted look Noah was at least somewhat convinced that whatever had happened to this Peter had happened before his son had found him. And he didn’t feel the least bit guilty that he was grateful for that. His son had gone through enough shit as it was.

He still had felt bad for leaving them alone for the two hours he had left for his shift, especially when he found the old missing person report of Peter Hale, a kid that disappeared sixteen years ago. Stiles’ Peter was a dead ringer for the kid. He was dressed in the same clothes and everything, and had given Stiles the same first name too.  He had sent a patrol car to watch over the house until he came home as soon as he found it. Just in case. Because something was going on, and it had something to do with the Hales. And they had all died, well almost all, in a bloody awful way. He didn’t like the implications of an even bigger conspiracy than he already suspected. It was downright odd how all evidence of the ringleader for the arson had been missing. It didn’t make sense that someone would make so much trouble of killing a family that didn’t have any criminal ties at all.

Could this Peter be the son of the missing Peter Hale? He had to be at least related. Did he know what had happened? Hale’s sisters had always been adamant that he wasn’t dead, and they had offered large rewards for any news of their brother. Nothing had ever come out of it, and well, then they all died. Was there a connection there? Had Peter been abducted and somehow his family gotten too close and burned for it? But how did this new Peter fit in all of this? He couldn’t have been involved in Hale’s disappearance, he was way too young for that, but there wasn’t any record of any stray Hale family either. And Talia would definitely have made an issue if she had known about any more children of her brother. She had adopted his first one after all. She couldn’t have known. 

He had gathered all the files on both the missing Peter Hale and the Hale arson to take home with him. He didn’t have a shift for the next 48 hours, he had planned to actually try and spend some time with his son but this would have to take precedence. He hadn’t told Stiles about it yet anyway, wanting to keep it as a surprise. So at least he wouldn’t disappoint him too much. He should probably take Peter back to the station, make it official, but he would give the boy a chance to tell his story first. Shit, he probably should talk to someone from CPS, because Peter had definitely been through something traumatizing, but he didn’t want to contact more authorities before he knew the story. The system was not always a good fit, and if it was only a matter of resemblance and a boy getting lost in the woods it would be unnecessary getting all bureaucratic if it could be solved otherwise.

Noah had had a brief moment of panic when he found his sons bed empty when he got home, but it had passed when he had found him in bed with Peter. And wasn’t that an odd reaction? He had never thought that he would be relieved when he first found his son sharing a bed with anyone other than Scott, which he wouldn’t protest against even if it went beyond platonic, but well. Given the look on Peter he had probably had a nightmare, and Stiles would have sympathy for that. And Noah was proud that his son’s response had been to offer the one kind of help that he could. But maybe he deserved some light teasing later, because he looked downright cozy with Peter. But not before Noah knew Peter’s story. And maybe, just maybe, this would lead to Stiles getting over his obsession with Lydia. Because that girl did not deserve his son, no matter how brilliant Stiles thought she was.

He changed the note on the refrigerator to one where he asked Stiles to wake him up for breakfast. He would probably not get as much sleep that he would want, but this was more important. Sleeping could wait.

~ ~ ~

Stiles put on the radio when he got down to the kitchen. He chose one of the channels with continuous music, since he didn’t want to throw any current news on Peter before he asked for them. It was probably better to let his new situation sink in first. He hummed along with the music, trying to decide if it was worth making pancakes or if he should just stick with bacon and eggs. Then he noticed the time, almost half past ten, they had snoozed longer than he thought. Maybe he should make a brunch out of it instead. But his dad would absolutely know that he was trying to butter him up if he got both bacon and pancakes. Was it worth it?

He thought of Peter, and how his world had turned upside down. It was absolutely worth it. And it wasn’t like they were trying to hide anything from his dad anyway. Stiles just wanted him in a good mood before telling him that werewolves were real, and time travel was a thing. Well, Sleeping Beauty like sleep at least, or whatever had happened to Peter. Something magic at least, but it was probably way easier to send someone forward through time than back. Would Peter want to go back? His family was dead here so probably, but would it be possible? He already knew enough to change stuff, and wouldn’t that create a paradox? Man, it was way too early to think about this, he needed more information first. Maybe he could get some information off the internet, not everything could be bullshit. After all, werewolves and magic were real, so somebody had to know something about it.

Anyway, breakfast, brunch, whatever. They did have blueberries, and blueberry pancakes were his dad’s favorite. And damn it, Stiles wanted bacon; he could make an exception just once. He went over to the fridge to get out everything he needed and saw the note from his dad. He was glad that he hadn’t gotten pulled in for overtime. Sometimes it sucked having a dad as sheriff. Especially as he didn’t want to only be the guy in charge. He more often than not took lead on the major investigations. Well, he was the best they had but sometimes Stiles wished that his dad would step back a bit. Be home more. Maybe even get regular hours when there wasn’t an emergency going on. He was the sheriff, so he was ultimately in charge of the schedule anyway. But well, he was probably so popular as a sheriff because he was so involved, so Stiles just had to deal. And he would get to work with his dad this summer, so that would be nice. Well… Work at the same place at least. He was going to be some kind of filing assistant so he would probably not be too involved with his dad but they could at least have lunch together.

He had almost finished the batter for the pancakes when Peter got down, scaring him half to death as he just suddenly popped up beside him.

“No bacon?” Peter asked over his shoulder, and then somehow managed to catch the bowl with pancake batter that Stiles dropped.

“Gah! Where did you come from?” Stiles tried to calm his beating heart as he took back the bowl. He looked Peter over and felt his ears go pink. He looked practically edible with his hair slicked back with water and the loaned shirt clinging to his body. His very nice muscular body. Which Stiles should stop gawking at, because he liked Lydia damn it, and Peter was traumatized. And Stiles wasn’t gay, shouldn’t he know if he was gay? Or well, bi or whatever. He was sixteen! Shouldn’t he already have noticed if he was attracted to guys?

“And we’ll have bacon too, and I’m thinking hash browns, and fruit and maybe some toast. I just haven’t gotten around starting cooking yet, it’s best to prepare stuff first so everything can be ready at the same time.”

“What can I do to help?”

“You can cook? Are you any good? If so, you can start on the hash browns, otherwise, you can slice up the fruit. I need to go wake my dad so he is at least somewhat awake when the food is ready.”

“No need, he woke up a minute ago. I don’t think he will go back to sleep.”

“How do you know that? Did you see him? Did he say something? Are you okay?” He doesn’t think his dad would do anything towards Peter, but Peter had been a bit hesitant the day before and Stiles didn’t know how he would react to meeting the sheriff alone.

“No, well, I can sort of hear him?”

“No way?! That is so cool! And creepy, definitely creepy. How does it work, do you just hear super good and how are you still sane? How far can you hear? Can you hear our neighbors? That must be so annoying!”

Peter chuckled, “I can hear most of what’s happening in the house, but it’s sort of background noise, I need to focus to actually get details. Mostly I don’t, because privacy is important, but your dad groaned when he got up and that caught my attention. But it takes an effort to listen in on people, so I mostly just let it be background noise.”

“Oh, good. Are your other senses better too? Like, you should have an awesome sense of smell, how do I smell to you? Wait, the soap didn’t have too strong a scent did it?” He leaned in closer to get a whiff of Peter, he smelled like Stiles’ body wash, and then he blushed furiously. That was not a normal thing to do, and he shouldn’t like it so much that Peter smelled like him, and was wearing his clothes. God damn it, he liked Lydia! And Peter didn’t need him to get a crush either. This was so disrespectful. 

~ ~ ~

Stiles was definitely attracted to him, Peter was reasonably sure of that. But he wasn’t sure if Stiles would want to act on it. He seemed a bit unsure of himself. Peter kind of wanted to flirt with him, just to see if he could make the other boy blush for real. But he abstained, Stiles was the one thing that kept him under control at the moment, he couldn’t afford to alienate him if Stiles didn’t want to like him. There was a difference between being attracted to guys and accept being attracted to guys after all. He started peeling the potatoes, he wasn’t the best cook, but he wasn’t incompetent either. He could help with breakfast. Doing things helped with pushing everything else away.

“Well, you kind of smell like me. That is nice. And your soap is fine, you get used to scents quite quickly. If we couldn’t handle it school would be torture. It’s just one more thing you have to learn.” Peter had always had excellent control too, he didn’t turn his senses off exactly, he just, turned them down. It was important not to stand out after all.

“Ah. So how did you become a werewolf? Were you bitten? How does that work? Could I become a werewolf? Do I want to? Hmm, I don’t think I do, I can barely keep up with myself as it is, pack a bunch of super senses on top of everything seems dumb.” Stiles did seem to have a talent for talking, and asking questions. It was a bit adorable; he was like a child who had to ask everything before he forgets.

“I was born this way, most of my family was. One of my brother's in-laws is…” He stumbles over the word, not is, not anymore. He can’t think on that, he just, he can’t. “…Was bitten. So humans can be turned, but only an alpha can do that. So you will have to wait until I get a hold of Laura. And I think you would make a terrific wolf.” He grinned at Stiles, he would like that. If Stiles became a werewolf they could be pack for real. Well, humans could be pack but it took longer and it wasn’t as intense, and always a bit uneven. The werewolf felt it a lot stronger than the human; some humans didn’t feel it at all.

“Thank you… I think. That was a compliment, right?” Stiles smiled shyly at him, and he nodded, grateful that the other boy didn’t say anything about him briefly forgetting that his pack was dead. No, he couldn’t think about it now, he didn’t want to think about it at all. He instead steered the conversation to a more neutral ground as they continued cooking. They talked about their favorite subjects in school; Stiles preferred the more science-oriented ones, and Peter was more of a history buff. Well, Peter was mostly into sports, since athletes were admired, and he didn’t really care about his grades. His family had enough money that he would get into a reasonable university regardless, and he was smart enough to get by. He had treated high school as the funhouse that it was, honing his skills on getting people to do what he wanted. He didn’t mention that part to Stiles; he had gotten the distinct impression that Stiles wasn’t one of the popular kids and didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

He listened for the sheriff with half an ear but felt himself relax into the cooking with Stiles. It was easy, and they managed to prepare almost a feast worthy of what his family used to have on Sundays. He resolutely ignored that. He had Stiles now, that would have to do.

~ ~ ~

Noah took his time getting ready after he woke up. He could hear the radio playing downstairs so he knew Stiles was up and probably preparing breakfast. He had heard someone use the shower as he woke up, but as there were no accompanying clashes he was reasonably sure it had been Peter. He loved his son with all his heart, but he would never accuse his boy of being graceful in the morning. He would probably need to remind him of taking his medicine too; Stiles had a habit of forgetting when his morning routine was disturbed. And waking up late cuddling with what could only be described as a stranger would absolutely disturb the routine. And it was late, almost eleven before Noah was finished getting ready for the day. He had gotten more sleep than he had expected so he didn’t feel the usual desperate need for coffee. This was good since Stiles was good at cooking but absolutely rubbish at making coffee.

Noah could smell the bacon before entering the kitchen. Oh boy, this meant bad news… Or that Stiles wanted a favor. Or… Maybe Stiles just wanted him in a good mood? Like if he wanted to tell his dad that he maybe didn’t just like girls but didn’t know how he would react. Noah wanted to believe that he had raised his son to know that who you liked did not define your worth as a person but well… That was probably just wishful thinking on Noah’s part anyway. Stiles had been one girl kind of boy for years and one girl only. At least he hadn’t done anything too bad, yet. It would be better if Lydia would just tell Stiles that nothing would ever happen but as far as Noah could tell she had probably not noticed him at all. Which probably took some effort and Noah knew that it wasn’t her responsibility to get Stiles over his obsession but Noah worried. And he was certain that Stiles would accept a no, but only if he got one. And that was probably the reason he hadn’t actually asked her out, not only the fear of rejection but also the knowledge that he would have to let her go. And God knew that he loved his son, but he was bad at letting go.

He observed the two boys preparing breakfast a few minutes before entering. It seemed like Stiles had decided that Peter was one of his people. And Peter looked a lot better this morning, it was almost like nothing had happened the day before at all. Noah was cautiously optimistic; maybe he had just had a bad day and got lost in the woods and just happened to look exactly like a missing boy from the nineties. He decided that he would wait with the questions until after breakfast. He would treat the kid like he was just one of Stiles’ friends, a new one sure, but not somebody who was potentially caught up in a drug-dealing cult of arsonists. God, please don’t be drugs, anything but drugs. Well… Not anything, but anyway. He was started to get worse than Stiles, it was time to take control of this morning.

“So, is there a reason we’re having a feast this morning or are you just showing off for our guest?” Noah teased his son as he made his way to the coffeepot. Stiles jumped and let out a small yelp but Peter didn’t flinch at all. He had been sure none of them had noticed him as they had been deep into a discussion about the merits of basketball verses lacrosse off all things, but maybe Peter just had better nerves than his son had.

“Why is everyone sneaking up on me?! It’s not fair. And I thought that since we got up so late we could have brunch. And that means more food than usual. And you get two pieces of bacon because I’m nice and it’s cruel to withhold bacon completely when it’s available. But only two, because there have to be limits.” Stiles grumbled as he started to cook pancakes. Blueberry, he definitely wanted something.

“Very generous of you. Have you taken your medicine this morning or do you want coffee?” Coffee wasn’t an actual substitute for Adderall, because if Stiles could manage his ADHD with only the help of coffee they would have switched to that in a heartbeat. But it did help a bit when he forgot his medicine and didn’t want to get on a wonky schedule. And it was kind of late taking it now.

“What? Damn it, yeah… I kind of forgot... Coffee will have to do.” He looked sheepish, and Noah couldn’t help but reach out and squeeze his shoulder in sympathy.

“How about you Peter, do you drink coffee?” Peter looked a bit confused but agreed to coffee, and Noah quietly made enough for three and then started to set the table. Peter worked surprisingly well with the Stilinskis, and he seemed agreeable enough. He didn’t say much, he was more cautious with Noah there. But he didn’t seem high at least, and he didn’t have any marks on him that spoke of abuse that Noah could see. That didn’t have to mean anything, but he wasn’t afraid, weary yes, but not afraid.

Breakfast was delicious. Noah knew that he should be a bit ashamed of how good Stiles had become at cooking since it was mostly a reaction to how useless Noah was in the kitchen. But he could only be proud, even if it usually meant that he had to endure Stiles’ experimentations with healthy interpretations of his favorite foods.  But today he got bacon and blueberry pancakes, it was a luxury he seldom got to enjoy and he was determined to make the best of it. So he tried to engage the two boys in conversation about harmless things. It ended up with Stiles doing most of the talking, like usual and he got to know way more about the latest Iron Man movie than he strictly wanted. Surprisingly enough without too many spoilers, since Peter hadn’t seen it yet, or any other of the superhero movies that Stiles loved so much. He hadn’t seen the newer Star Wars movies either, but at least he had seen the original ones. Noah was relieved when he told them that, he had started to believe that his cult theory wasn’t as ridiculous as it should be. Maybe he just didn’t like movies. He looked like the athletic type, so maybe he preferred more active stuff.

~ ~ ~

Stiles deemed breakfast a success. His dad was unusually cooperative and didn’t question Peter about anything sensitive, not even where he was from, and Stiles managed to keep the conversation going. Even if Peter regrettably had little to contribute to modern movies, but he had seen the original Star Wars trilogy, so Stiles was happy. And movies were better than starting to talk about sports, or school or other things that would get into hard to explain territory fast. But Stiles could see how Peter got more and more nervous as the meal progressed. He didn’t show it much, he was actually scary good at repressing his emotions but Stiles could tell. And his dad could too.

“So, Peter, do you think you can tell me about what happened to you?” His dad used his worried dad voice and not his sheriff's voice. That was good, but Peter froze none the less. Stiles grabbed hold of one of his hands in support, Peter seemed to respond best to physical contact, and Stiles wanted to do whatever he could to make it easier for him.

“I… Well, you will probably not believe me. And I don’t know how to prove it to you.”

“Have you done anything wrong?”

“What? No! Or, well, I ran away from home but I didn’t mean to stay away this long!” Peter sounded upset, and Stiles could almost feel how guilt had settled in his new friend’s core. Like his family was dead because he hadn’t been there.

“Then you have nothing to worry about. I promise I will do my best to believe you, okay?”

“It’s just… I have never told anyone, it’s the one thing we can’t do. And…” Peter looked like he struggled to stay in control and clung to Stiles like he was the only thing that kept him together.

“Do you want me to tell him? Would that be easier?” Stiles could see how his dad had started to form his own theories, probably going for abusive parents or something similar.

“I don’t…  Can you promise not to shoot me? No matter what?” Peter actually looked scared now, damn, this was not good at all. His dad’s eyes widened, he had not expected that question.

“I don’t shoot kids, and I would never shoot anyone for just telling me something. The only time I have ever fired my gun at anybody has been to defend lives. So yes, I can promise you, I will not shoot you. I will not harm you in any way as long as you don’t try to harm Stiles or me. And I will not let anyone harm you either. You are safe here. I promise.”

“Okay… Here goes nothing.” Peter took a deep breath before he continued. “I’m Peter Hale, I’m a werewolf. Yesterday I got into an argument with my sister and ran away from home. I fell asleep in the preserve and woke up what I thought was just a few hours later, feeling my connection to my family broken. Stiles found me, we went back to my place and then I found out that my home had burned years ago, with my family inside.” He looked broken, like saying the words out loud had made them real. It broke Stiles’ heart and he prayed that his dad would not say something stupid.

His dad had leaned back at the onslaught of words spilling from Peter’s mouth and his eyebrows had risen higher and higher. He looked a lot less skeptical than Stiles’ thought he would.

“Well, that was not at all what I expected to hear… So werewolf huh? Can you at least give me some evidence of that?” Well, that was to be expected. Peter had actually been sort of disappointedly normal for a supernatural creature. The only things Stiles had seen had been the briefly changed eyes and howling the night before.

“I don’t think I dare to show too much, I’m afraid I will lose control if I let go of my human side. But I can show you my eyes at least.” And with that Peter’s eyes turned from brilliant blue to warm glowing gold.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” His dad just looked at Peter for a moment. “You said you were afraid of losing control. Can you explain that part?”

“I’m a werewolf; we usually live in packs… We bond to one another and when somebody dies unexpectedly… A broken bond is like losing a limb, and I lost everybody in an instant. Well, an instant for me at least.” Peter put his free hand to his chest and rubbed it. “It’s like something burned a hole into my heart. Where I should feel the connections to my family… It hurts. I can’t let that in. And if I shift, even if it’s only the partial shift I can’t shut that out. And I don’t know if I would be able to shift back. The only reason I haven’t gone feral is that Stiles found me before I realized what had happened.” Peter’s voice was monotone, cold, like he had actually pushed his feelings away. And it didn’t sit right with Stiles. But he didn’t know what to do; he could only helplessly look at his dad while keep holding Peter’s hand, hoping that his dad could fix this. And he could see the warring emotions on his dad’s face. He was worried, and still a bit skeptical and, surprised as well. Maybe a tiny bit scared too. But then Peter closed his eyes and gave up a very low whine, like he couldn’t stop it no matter how hard he tried. 

“Aww, hell. Kiddo. This is… I’m so sorry. Come on, let’s take a break.” And his amazing dad scrambled around the table, helped Peter up on his feet and then engulfed him in a hug. One of his big amazing dad hugs that were the best thing in the world. Stiles got caught up in it too, because Peter didn’t let go of him so he ended up plastered against Peters back. He rolled with it, because Peter had lost his whole family, so for the time being Stiles’ could loan him his.

 Peter was stiff at first, like he was afraid to let himself have this comfort, but then he broke down sobbing against his dad’s neck. Both Stiles and his dad made the same calming noises, giving Peter some time. Maybe they should be worried since Peter had just said that he was afraid of feeling how hurt he was because he could go feral. And it sounded scary with a feral werewolf, that couldn’t be a good thing. But right now Peter was a scared kid that had had his world turn upside down. He deserved all the comfort they could give him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a [tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/), come say hi.
> 
> Also, if I get something stupidly wrong about ADHD please enlighten me, because research is all well and good, but I have no personal experience and I don't want to misinform anyone. But as far as I can tell Stiles' would not drink coffee if he had taken his meds, since they kind of have a synergy effect and nobody want extra side effects. And I put a stupid amount of hours to try and get it right, and let me tell you, teen wolf is no help at all to understand Stiles' ADHD.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to finish before the end of Sunday, even if I did spend most of my weekend playing Pillars of Eternity. 
> 
> Thank you all for your thoughts on ADHD. I found a really good youtube channel, so now I'm feeling kind of bummed that I don't actually know anyone that will benefit from my newfound knowledge. But check out [How to ADHD](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-nPM1_kSZf91ZGkcgy_95Q), it's kind of awesome.
> 
> Minor edit: kind of said that Talia had married Peter's dad. Oops. It's fixed now.

Peter checked out for a while. It just was too much, actually telling somebody about what he was missing. He didn’t really articulate how broken he was but it was hard to explain that something that had always been a part of him was missing. He didn’t think neither Stiles nor his dad actually got how severe his loss was, hell, he hadn’t really comprehended it yet. But then the sheriff held him, and it was… It was almost like something settled inside Peter. Here was an adult, an actual honest authority figure and he had promised nothing would hurt Peter. Sure, it was before he knew about the supernatural stuff, but it felt like it didn’t matter. So Peter let go, at least as much as he dared and neither of the Stilinskis backed away. He felt safe, and a bit less alone.

He wasn’t sure how long they stood there, with Peter crying his heart out while the other men held him. But they let him, and when he calmed down they didn’t give him any platitudes, even Stiles was quiet, but instead lead him to the living room and gingerly helped him down on the couch. He didn’t really care about what happened then, there was too much to take in. He wasn’t sure that the sheriff actually believed that he was a time traveling werewolf with a dead family, and Peter couldn’t really fault him if he didn’t. Because what kind of person would just accept that as a truth with only some glowing eyes as evidence? Well, Stiles had, but Stiles was special. Maybe he could show his advanced healing, that shouldn’t impact his steel like grasp he had on pushing everything werewolf down at the moment. He kind of really wanted to shift to a wolf. Everything was easier as a wolf, but he couldn’t be sure that he would curl up like a miserable ball of fur like he wanted to and not go on a murderous rampage instead. Or maybe he would just let go of his humanity completely and go live like a wolf in the forest. The thought of that was kind of nice, but he pushed that away too. He needed answers, and he needed to find Laura and Derek. He really needed to check when the next full moon was too because he would not be able to keep a lid on his wolf then.

When he started to take notice of his surroundings again he found himself cuddled up against Stiles with one of his hands softly running through Peter’s hair. Peter decided that he would figure out his packless situation later, right now he had this; he had Stiles, and maybe his dad. It would have to do.

The TV was on, and Peter was almost more fascinated with the actual television than the movie it was playing. It was big, much larger than anything Peter had ever seen, and wide and it was either infused into the wall or a lot thinner than Peter would have thought possible. And nothing so far had made Peter think that Stiles and his dad were particularly wealthy, so this had to be a future thing. He sort of wanted to ask a lot of questions but didn’t have any energy for it. Instead, he settled in against Stiles and watched the movie. It was Beauty and the Beast, and he wondered if Stiles had intentionally picked something that he had probably seen before. It was nice nonetheless, and Peter was grateful.

~ ~ ~

Noah left Peter with Stiles in the living room, the boy was unresponsive, but he wasn’t too worried about it. He had shown absolutely no signs of aggression and Noah thought that he probably just needed some time. He wasn’t sure what to think of everything. Werewolves just seemed, too fantastical. It was easier to believe the time travel bit since the missing person report made much more sense if that was real. And the Hales had provided the department with Peter’s fingerprints so it would be easy to confirm his identity for sure. There had to be more to that story though because it couldn’t be normal to just fall asleep and then wake up more than a decade later, werewolf or not. He needed to get the exact location so they could ward that part off from the public. He didn’t need any new missing kids.

He went to his office to think things over but left the door open so he would hear if anything happened. Just in case. So far the only noise from the living room was the movie Stiles had put on. It was a bit out of character for Stiles to be quiet during a movie, especially one that he had seen before, but he did have some tact when he thought about it. But maybe Noah should go out and check just in case? No, damn it, he needed to think the situation over, and Stiles would not go down quietly if Peter tried something. And why would he? As far as Noah could tell, Peter actually liked Stiles, even if they had only known each other for a few hours. It was nice to see, even if Peter was traumatized.

Maybe whatever had happened to Peter could only happen to werewolves? If Peter actually was a werewolf and not just delusional. But there had been the eyes, and Noah didn’t think that any drugs or technology could give somebody the option to change the color and make their eyes glow like that. Not without some kind of secret experimentations that would be more likely to happen in one of Stiles’ favorite movies, and Noah felt like he would prefer the supernatural to be real than having humans playing with body modifications without public knowledge. And it would be even worse if it was some kind of government-sanctioned shit because that meant military and that would mean real trouble for him and Stiles. So he was leaning towards believing in werewolves. But Noah wanted to see more before making up his mind, but he would treat Peter like it was true, it felt like the right thing to do. And it didn’t really hurt anybody either. Well, okay maybe it wasn’t the wisest point of action to play along with someone’s delusions, if Peter was actually crazy, but it wasn’t like he had any other option that wouldn’t make him feel like a shitty person.

Ugh, werewolves and time travel… Noah was itching to get a drink, but he had made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t drink before dinner years ago. He wasn’t his father, even if he had gotten close a few times he had never stooped that low. And he certainly couldn’t break that promise with a potential werewolf in the house. Was it bad that Noah kind of wanted his drug-dealing cult to be real instead? He knew how to tackle something like that. Well, he knew who to contact for help at least. He couldn’t contact anyone with this. Not without giving Peter up as evidence and that seemed like the beginning of a bad horror movie. Noah didn’t want to believe that their government would sanction experimentations on a teenage werewolf that had somehow been transported forward in time and therefore would not be missed, but the risk was there. So he would not contact anyone official. Hell, he couldn’t even talk to his deputies about it because there had to be some kind of policing force for the supernatural if it was true. And that probably meant that there was some kind of safeguard to handle the odd human who knew too much. It couldn’t have been kept hidden otherwise.

Crap, if Peter was a werewolf… And his family had been his… What had he called them? Pack? Then they had probably been werewolves too. And that had probably been the motive for the arson. Had it been retaliation? No, there had been children in that house, the youngest one had only been a few months. There was no excuse for that kind of evil. And the Hales had lived in Beacon Hills for generations, and Noah couldn’t remember that there had been more animal attacks before the arson. If anything it had been more incidents after the fire and it wasn’t unreasonable to think that a pack of werewolves would work as a deterrent for mountain lions and other predators.

And the only unsolved murder Noah could remember from the time before the arson had been the poor man found in the woods severed in half. But the cut had been too clean to be anything other than some kind of blade and that didn’t seem like a werewolf type of kill at all. Not that he knew anything on how werewolves would kill, but surely they would have claws? And fangs? And he had left his helpless son alone with one. If it was real, God, how could it be real? It was insane, that was what it was. Should he take out his gun from the safe just in case? But Peter had looked so scared when he had asked Noah not to shoot him, and well... It was never a good idea to escalate a situation and a gun would absolutely do that. And he didn’t want to shoot anyone either, and Peter was so young. They really did need to try and find a solution for him to be confident of his control again. Because surely werewolves would have to have impeccable control to stay hidden? And Peter seemed to be able to put a lid on everything at the moment, but that was not healthy. And well, Noah wanted to see more and better evidence of werewolves actually being a thing than just some glowing eyes.

Damn it all to hell, he wanted to go to the station and look into old cases to see if anything would stand out as a possible werewolf attack, but he couldn’t leave Stiles alone with Peter before he knew more about the situation. But he couldn’t very well interrogate Peter either at the moment, the kid had lost his whole family, and if he felt it even more than humans did when they lost a loved one… Noah was actually not sure how Peter even had managed to function as well as he had during the morning. He had been barely functioning for over a year after Claudia died, fleeing into his job as the new sheriff and the bottle at home. The only good thing about the arson was that he had been forced to get his act together. Which had probably saved his relationship with his son to be honest, who knew what would have happened if he had kept drinking like he had?

 He should probably look over the cases for the year before the fire, he didn’t think he had botched anything but maybe he had dismissed something without realizing it. God, he hoped not, but then… He had missed that there had been a family of werewolves living among them. And somebody had found out and killed them for it. Probably. He needed to know just what being a werewolf entailed. Did they have any special abilities? Peter had mentioned that they could shift, did he mean that they could turn into actual wolves? Or was it more like the wolfman that was so popular in movies? And most importantly, if they did have special abilities… How the hell had somebody managed to burn eleven of them alive inside a house? Most of the bodies had been found in the basement, which was a stupid way to go to try and get out, even with an escape tunnel.

Huh, werewolves kind of explained some things in the basement though. Noah had thought that the cage and shackles had been remnants from the slave era kept for some kind of historical reminder or some crap like that, but they were probably actually to keep werewolves that had lost control contained. Maybe they could use something like that to help Peter? Not that he actually wanted the kid to lose control, but they needed to find a safe way for him to deal with his loss. It wasn’t healthy to bottle everything up, and Noah didn’t think that just crying would be enough. Peter needed a safe way to rage against the world that had taken so much from him, otherwise, there was the real possibility that he would snap. And that could hurt Stiles. And Noah wouldn’t allow that.

Noah had a selfish moment where he just wanted to ship Peter away as a delusional teen that had suffered a mental break and get him out of his house and Stiles’ life. But he couldn’t do that. Partly because that would absolutely set Peter off, and if he really did have fangs and claws a lot of people would get hurt. But Stiles would also never get along with it. He had already claimed Peter as his, and it took a lot for Stiles to abandon people. He had only let go of his childhood friend Heather when it had been obvious that she couldn’t handle him after his mother’s death. At least that was what Noah thought had happened, the year after Claudia died was hazy after all. Maybe they had just grown apart for other reasons. Maybe they had only been friends because their mothers had been. It wasn’t like Noah had a lot of contact with Claudia’s friends nowadays. Only Melissa, and that was mainly because of Stiles’ friendship with Scott.

~ ~ ~

Stiles was having an existential crisis. He had his lap full of Peter, who had somehow migrated from being kind of sort of cuddled up against Stiles’ side, very respectfully, to lying with his head in Stiles’ lap way too close to his crotch. At least he still looked at the movie, and now Stiles was fairly certain that he actually looked at the movie and not just… Stared straight ahead without actually seeing anything. And Peter seemed to like how Stiles was playing with his hair, which had sort of just happened, and Stiles knew he shouldn’t have started that but he needed to do something with his hands and it seemed like a good idea at the time. He tried to focus on the movie, he usually didn’t have too much trouble getting into Disney, but today it was hard.

Probably because Peter’s hair was fascinating, almost reaching his shoulders and very brown dark, almost black. Probably because it was wet, it had been lighter before. It was a bit coarser than expected too, and Stiles wondered if it was because Peter had been forced to wash it without any actual hair products. Stiles usually just used soap as his hair was so short it didn’t matter anyway. They should probably get Peter some better stuff, but for now, Stiles slowly untangled it. It was still damp, which meant that he needed to be careful to not tug at it by accident. Maybe Peter would like that? No, bad thoughts, thoughts like those were the source of his crisis. He liked petting Peter, he liked the occasional contented sigh that Peter let out, he liked how he had managed to make Peter look a little bit less haunted. And now his dick tried to get in on the action and prompt that it really liked having someone so close to it. A highly attractive someone too, with his high cheekbones and stupidly perfect mouth.

Which was highly inappropriate, Peter had just had a meltdown, Stiles had never been attracted to a guy before and right now was really not the time to get a boner. At least thoughts on Peters dead family helped, there was nothing sexy about arson after all. But it was hard to remember that with Peter so close. Stiles had never been in this situation before and he was sixteen for god’s sake. He had hormones! And Peter was a werewolf! God damn it, could he smell arousal? Stiles froze at that thought, and Peter gave up a kind of annoyed questioning sound that made Stiles continue what he was doing. He was comforting Peter, that was the only thing he was doing. Comforting, because Peter had lost his family. All of them, except two. A lot of dead family there, yep, Stiles was just comfort. Nothing sexy about it at all.

He tried focusing on the movie again, it was some time since he had last seen the Beauty and the Beast, so he made a game out of trying to predict the next scene. It helped a little, but it also made it a struggle to not talk, but he managed. It worked sort of. His mind wandered to Peter now and then but each time he gave himself a mental slap at the back of his head and refocused on the movie. At least Peter seemed to like it, even if he got a bit confused when the new song came along. That was the one time Stiles actually had an excuse to say something as he explained that it had been added when Disney re-launched the movie 2001. He stopped himself before going on a tangent how Disney had a habit of milking every movie they had for as much as possible and also how Disney had sort of spearheaded the extended length something was protected by copyright. When they themselves frequently used fairytales from the public domain for their movies. He didn’t say anything about that. Because Peter was enjoying the movie and didn’t need to listen to Stiles’ talk over it. He actually had to focus on Peter’s hair for a bit to manage to keep quiet, but well. It worked.

~ ~ ~

Peter didn’t really know what to say when the movie finished. He didn’t really want to move either, he liked lying in Stiles’ lap. It reminded him of how movie nights usually were with the pack, everyone cuddling up to each other no matter what kind of grievance they had had during the day. He should probably say something, maybe if he started talking they could stay like this just a little bit longer? He wasn’t sure what to talk about though, he didn’t want to talk about his family, it was still too raw. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to get into all the future stuff either. He just wanted to feel normal for a little bit, to feel like he had made a new friend and nothing else mattered. So something about Stiles then… Well… There was the elephant in the room… He turned to his back and looked up at Stiles.

“So… What kind of name is Stiles anyway?” Usually, that would have been his first question, but well… He hadn’t been his best the day before, wasn’t now either, but he could pretend for a moment at least.

Stiles chuckled and looked away and unfortunately stopped playing with Peter’s hair. “It’s a nickname. My real one is kind of a monstrosity. My mom named me after her father who was Polish. Well, mom was too but she moved to the US to study, and then she met dad and stayed.”

“What is it then?” He wanted to ask what had happened to Stiles’ mom too but refrained. He was almost certain she was dead, and he didn’t want the conversation to go to dead family.

“Hey, I hardly know you. My real name is a privilege that only my dad has.” Stiles’ teased with a small smile. “Well, Scott has heard it but can’t pronounce it for the life of him. And I guess my school has in on paper. But that doesn’t help much. So everyone calls me Stiles, I prefer it that way.”

Hmm…  Now Peter really wanted to know, but well, patience was a virtue and all that.

“Who is Scott?” He hoped he wasn’t a boyfriend, he didn’t plan on seducing Stiles just yet, he was in no shape or form ready for anything like that, not without getting obsessed, but he did want to have the option for the future. A boyfriend would be an inconvenience.

“He’s my best friend. We’ve known each other for ages. But he’s at his grandparents in San Francisco for the next few weeks so you won’t be meeting him soon.”

“Ah. I see.”

“It’s probably for the best though, don’t get me wrong, Scott is awesome, but he is useless at keeping secrets. I have tried to teach him, and its okay as long as no one asks him questions… I guess that would work in this case, I can’t really see anyone ask him if you are a werewolf, but it’s probably for the best not to tell him. And well, I kind of tell him everything so it will be easier not to say anything since he is not here. And it’s really not my secret to share either, and you don’t know Scott, so why would you trust him just because I do? Well, I trust him to always have my back, even if he sometimes fucks up and get us caught. He always takes his part of the blame even if it was my idea to start with. And now I feel bad about wanting to keep it secret, who keeps secrets from their best friend?”

Peter blinked at the onslaught of words, well, the boy could talk. He had to give him that. And Peter liked that he didn’t automatically assume that he could tell just anyone about werewolves. He decided that it would probably be easier to understand Stiles if he wasn’t distracted by remaining in his lap, and well, the head scratches had stopped anyway.

“Don’t think of it like you are keeping something from him; think of it like you are keeping something secret for me. Does that help?” Peter wanted to reach out and touch Stiles, but he wasn’t sure that it was allowed now that he was back to more or less normal.

Stiles nodded, looking relieved. “Yes, that works. I’m being a good friend to you. Not a bad one to him.”

“What kind of trouble do you get into? Your dad is the sheriff, shouldn’t you be, you know… Good?”

“Hey! I am perfectly fine, I just like to explore is all… And sometimes people need to be… Inconvenienced if they behave like asses.”

~ ~ ~

Noah returned to the living room when he heard the movie getting to the end. He took the missing person files for Peter with him; it seemed like a good place to start. He didn’t want to get into the arson with Peter yet, but Noah thought it would help Peter to know that at least his family had missed him and never given up on him. Well, at least until the fire. He wasn’t really sure what he should tell Peter about Laura and Derek. It would be better if he actually had any contact information on them, but they had disappeared completely as soon as the trials were over. Not that they had stayed for them either, but they had been smart enough to be reachable until everything was cleared up to not get into trouble with the insurance company. But Noah had tried to reach them about a year after the fire, just to check in on them but they had changed numbers and moved from where they had stayed before. Noah had left it at that, he was certain they had had nothing to do with the arson, and he didn’t want to cause them any more trouble.

He found the two boys sitting next to each other, a little bit apart, talking. It looked like Peter had gone back to pretending everything was fine, and Stiles was letting him. Noah grinned when he heard Peter ask if Stiles’ shouldn’t behave himself as a son to the sheriff, Claudia hadn’t called him mischief for nothing after all. He outright laughed at Stiles’ reply.

“Son, if you think it’s an appropriate punishment to ‘set free’ a bunch of goats in the mayor’s garden just because he told a racist joke, then we really need to talk about appropriate levels of retribution. He lost his award-winning roses you know. I got to hear him complain about it for weeks after.” He said as he entered the room. Both boys jumped this time. Noah filed that information away for later as he sat down on one of the armchairs flanking the couch. 

“You knew that was me?!” Stiles sputtered, looking like a deer in headlights.

“Son, of course I knew it was you. It was funny, way over the top and both the mayor and the owner of the goats deserved some trouble, it couldn’t have been anyone else really. But since you got away with it without causing me any other trouble than having to deal with the mayor for a few weeks I decided to let it slide.” Peter looked way too intrigued by the topic, Noah had a feeling that he would be at least as ready as Scott was to get into trouble with his son. Was it too much to ask that Stiles’ would befriend someone who would temper his sense of mischief?

“Man… I thought I had gotten away with that one,” Stiles said, but he actually looked kind of proud.

Peter laughed at that, and it made him look like the seventeen-year-old that he was. Way too young to be left alone in the world. The three of them talked some more about the pranks Stiles’ had managed to pull off, and Peter even disclosed some of his own. Noah refrained from telling stories of his youth. He didn’t need to give Stiles’ any more ideas than he already had.

When the conversation came to a natural stop Noah took a calming breath and put on his sheriff persona. He could have waited but felt like it was best to get at least some of it over with.

“I’m sorry that I need to put you through this Peter, but do you think you can tell me what happened to you?” He gave Peter his best, I will listen to you and not let anything else happen, look and was glad to see Stiles scoot a bit closer and put a reassuring hand on Peter’s knee.

“I don’t really know. I just… I was so angry, and then I found this tree… Well, stump actually, that just gave out a really soothing presence. I felt safe, so I went to sleep, and then everything was horrible. Well, except Stiles, Stiles was really helpful.” Stiles blushed a little at that, and Noah could almost see the crush forming.

“Okay, do you think you can tell me about why you ran from home?”

“I don’t… Do I have to? She is dead, and… and…”

“Hey, it’s alright, you don’t have to tell me anything. But the more I know, the better I will be able to help you. But if it’s too soon I can wait.” He had gotten that Peter had been in an argument with his sister before he ran, Talia had disclosed that much. But she hadn’t said about what, but the rumors had told that it had been about the child she adopted about half a year later.

“Well… It’s just. Talia did something to me. And I have no idea what. Well, I have some idea, I have lost quite a lot of time. And alphas can take memories, and if they are really good they can leave something else instead. I don’t know how skilled Talia would have been, not enough for me not to notice… But I didn’t know it was her before I asked her for help. She begged me to let it go, and I just… I couldn’t stay there. And I can’t understand why she would do such a thing? Sure I can be a bit… Unruly… But to steal my memories? Why didn’t she talk to me instead? Or did she talk to me and I reacted poorly? And she took that too? I have no idea, and now she is dead and I won’t ever know. Well, unless she told Laura or Derek, but they were only children then, so why would she? And I didn’t want to stay away for so long, I just wanted to cool down, maybe make them miss me. And they burned for it.” The words poured out of Peter’s mouth, and his eyes started to glow halfway through. It was eerie, but Noah didn’t react other than reaching out and taking one of Peter’s hands.

“Okay. That is tuff, and I can’t say that I understand how any of that is possible. I’m still trying to fathom that werewolves are actually a thing. But I know that Talia was feeling guilty over whatever happened between the two of you, and she never gave up finding you again. And nothing that happened after you ran was your fault.” He is also reasonably sure that the thing Talia took was Peter’s baby. But he didn’t want to say anything about that just yet. The kid had had too many things pushed on him already. He didn’t need to know that he had become a dad and then lost the child to a fire too.

“…They missed me?” And Noah’s heart broke, because no one should sound so unsure of their family’s love no matter what kind of arguments they had. The Hales’ had messed up bad with Peter if he was so unsure of them even with the magical kind of bond he had spoken off before.

“Yes, they did. Talia and Violet came into the department at least twice a year just to make sure we didn’t forget about you. Not that we could do much since you disappeared without a trace. But they refused to believe that you had died, I guess they could still feel that you were alive? But I don’t really know what they thought had happened to you, I wasn’t their contact and the guy who was died three years ago.”

“Okay… Thank you for telling me that. At least Talia didn’t want me gone… When I woke up without any bonds… I thought that they had cut me off. That they didn’t want me anymore. That me leaving had been what they wanted. And then I found out that they had died… And I… I was almost relieved, but not, I can’t…” God, no surprise that he felt like the fire was his fault. Damn kids and their ability to take responsibility for stuff they had no control over because of things they thought.

“They loved you; you have even a foundation named after you.” Stiles butted in and smiled at Peter, and how he had remembered that esoteric fact was beyond Noah. He had totally forgotten about that. Maybe they knew how to get in contacts with Laura?

“I have? What does it do?”

“Well… I don’t know too much about it, but I think it sponsors the school’s basketball team. Coach has grumbled about it since lacrosse is a much more expensive sport and there are no sponsors for that.”

Peter perked up after that, and he and Stiles’ got into a discussion about what that had meant for the team. Stiles’ wasn’t really that knowledgeable about it, because he had never been interested in basketball, but he did know that the team had not changed the name to Peter’s disappointment. The sponsorship did put another thing in focus too. Peter’s identity. He couldn’t really resurface as Peter Hale again, not looking like he hadn’t changed a bit while at least some part of the community still remembered him. Noah thought the easiest solution would be for Peter to move somewhere else, but he would not even put that up as a suggestion.

It was actually Stiles’ who had thought about solutions. He suggested that Peter should pretend to be a cousin from a distant part of the family and either change his first name and keep Hale or change his last name and keep Peter. Or change both if he really wanted to. Peter said he would think about it, he could either go by Lucas Hale, as Lucas was his second name but he had never really used it, or Peter Moore, where Moore was his dad’s original surname. His dad had apparently changed his name to his mom's because she would be the next alpha for the Hale pack when they got married, and it wouldn’t do to have her named something else. Noah told him that he could take his time. They also needed to figure out exactly how to get him all the papers anyway. Stiles’ had looked like he had a potential solution for that too, but had kept quiet when Noah had frowned at him. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to know that his son had knowledge on how to get hold of a fake ID, but it seemed like he would have no choice.

But that could wait; there was a limit on how much Noah could deal with in one day. And for this day there had been enough revelations. Both boys seemed to agree to that and neither protested when Noah suggested pizza and a movie. Noah even got away with a meat lovers, so it became a good night. There was still a hell of a lot to deal with, but that could wait a day or so, it was his day off after all. He deserved some quality time with his son, and well, his son’s new friend and potential future boyfriend. Noah was still unsure about the werewolf part, but Peter was nice to Stiles, and seemed to genuinely like spending time with him. That was way better than the Martin girl in Noah’s book.

They watched the original Star Wars trilogy. Both boys talked way over the movie, of course they did. Noah resigned himself to never get to watch a movie in silence again. He didn’t care, because Stiles’ was delighted to have somebody who accepted him at face value. And that was way more important than to get to watch movies in peace.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments fuel my writing! 
> 
> I also have a [tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/), come say hi.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter was a bitch to write. Mainly because my stupid depression acted up again, so spent a week on my couch doing nothing. Not very productive. Or good for my health either. And it will take months before I get a new therapist too. Well, I could go private I suppose, but that is way too expensive for me. 
> 
> Anyway, I will try to get back to write a little every day, so hopefully, the next chapter will not be more than a week away. 
> 
> Like always, thank you so much for your comments and kudos!

Peter didn’t sleep much the following night. He kind of wanted to go to Stiles’ room and get into his bed for some company but refused. He had reassured both Stiles and his dad that he would be okay by himself and he wouldn’t go back on it. He was stronger than that; he had already had one breakdown, almost two. He didn’t want them to think that he was weak. A bit broken was okay, he had lost his whole life in a few hours, but he wasn’t weak. He should be able to sleep alone, he was almost an adult, he could take care of himself. The dreams didn’t care about that, unfortunately, so he woke up several times gasping for air but refusing to give in and seek solace in Stiles’ presence. He didn’t want to wake him up; Stiles seemed to have quite a hard time falling asleep as it was, without needy werewolves wanting comfort. Maybe it was some kind of consequence of the missed meds, he had wondered a bit on what they actually did for him. He hadn’t smelled anything wrong during the day and didn’t really want to ask. He was in quite the vulnerable situation as it was; he didn’t need to offend his hosts with nosiness too. 

He was out of sorts the following morning, and he had trouble dealing with it. He kind of wanted to be left alone but at the same time burrowing in Stiles’ scent. Well no, what he really wanted was the scent of his family, of his pack, but that would never happen again, now would it? He may have been a bit snappish, which he regretted but couldn’t really help. He felt trapped with strangers but had absolutely no desire to leave the house. Outside felt unsafe, anything could happen there. The sheriff seemed to get how Peter was feeling because he just asked if he was okay with being alone for the day since he had planned taking Stiles to a surprise baseball game in San Francisco anyway. Stiles had been ecstatic for the trip, which told Peter that it wasn’t something that happened often, but then he had remembered Peter and looked so conflicted, but Peter had mostly felt relieved. With them gone he could freak out without witnesses and he wanted that. Not that he said that to Stiles, because then he would never leave.

Stiles did show him how to use his computer before he left though, and explained that the internet was a big thing nowadays and he could use it to research anything he wanted. But that he shouldn’t download anything. He then went into a half an hour long description on what viruses were, and how he absolutely had a firewall but it couldn’t protect against everything and well, Peter zoned out a little after a while. The gist of it seemed to be to not click on anything, so Peter decided to start with the sites Stiles had left open; that seemed safe enough.

After that, he got a tour of the kitchen, where Stiles pointed to where he had hidden all the good snacks, after making sure his dad was not in the vicinity and made sure Peter understood how the DVD-player worked. Peter silently decided that he would look up all the major tech advancements the last decade as a first thing, because he was starting to feel kind of dumb for every new thing Stiles had to explain to him. He hated feeling dumb but managed to not show any of that to Stiles. It had still been a relief when the sheriff had gently eased Stiles out the door, and then just given Peter some money for takeout, showed where the menus were and left their numbers if he needed anything. He had also asked if Peter was absolutely sure he would be okay alone for a few hours and Peter had shooed them away. He’d gotten a spare key as an afterthought just before they left. Peter had almost choked on the amount of trust the sheriff showed him. Not only letting him stay in his home unsupervised but letting him have an actual key… Not that Peter wanted to leave, he definitely would not go anywhere, but to just have the option was nice.

Peter spent the better part of an hour just feeling overwhelmed by everything. He tried to get a grip on everything. His family was dead, except for two whom where somewhere unknown. He was stuck in a future without resources and dependent on humans with no prior knowledge of the supernatural. Well, they seemed to be good humans so he had lucked out there. He would have to change his name if he wanted to stay in Beacon Hills. Did he want to stay? Was there really anything left for him here? Only two days ago he had been ready to leave just to show his alpha that she couldn’t treat him however she pleased, so what kept him here now? And only thinking of Talia made him feel conflicted. She had done something to him, but he didn’t want her to die for it. Damnit. Everything was fucked, maybe just focus on the here and now.

So stay or not to stay… If he would be getting a new identity, why couldn’t he say he was eighteen and just skip the last year of high school? It wasn’t like he could just start his last year like nothing had happened anyway, there was no way he could learn sixteen years of events and culture in one summer to blend in with teenagers. He would stand out like a sore thumb and that was not an option. It would be easier somewhere else, somewhere new, but that meant leaving the Hale territory, and he wasn’t sure he could do that. Not when he had almost nothing keeping him grounded. He knew he couldn’t just repress his wolf for too much longer, and just the thought of shifting in unknown territory scared him. He didn’t want to think about that either.

Maybe he should start with something easy, like trying to find out how to look. Fashion had to have changed a lot, even if it didn’t seem so when looking at Stiles’ clothes. Well, he had tighter jeans, that was all. Would it be rude to go through his closet? Well, probably, but Peter needed to learn what was normal nowadays. In the future. Peter was in the future, and instead of trying to figure out what kind of technological marvels where mainstream he was focusing on clothes. Violet would be appalled. The thought of his sister hurt, he had just left her without saying anything, and now she was dead. She hadn’t deserved him leaving like that, Talia had, but not Violet. He shrugged and pushed his regrets away. He couldn’t do anything about it and if he thought about it too much… No, he couldn’t. Not yet.

He would focus on the small things. Things that he could actually do something about. Like how he needed to figure out how to fit in. He also needed to change how he looked enough to not be recognized by people he knew. He didn’t think it would take much, no one expected to see him as still a seventeen-year-old after all. So change of clothes, probably cut his hair, maybe change the color… Go full blond… Or go wild and crazy and color it blue or something? No one would ever believe that Peter would color his hair something outlandish, so that would probably work. But he would probably also stick out, which was kind of what he didn’t want to do. Well, first, try and figure out what people actually wore in the future.

~ ~ ~

Stiles was feeling conflicted. He was going to a game with his dad, which was awesome! But he had to leave Peter at home, which felt bad. Peter shouldn’t be alone, he was hurting, and he hadn’t slept well, Stiles could tell because he had been kind of grumpy and Stiles wanted to take care of him. He was also kind of afraid that Peter would do something stupid like go visit his old house alone. So he hated leaving him, but still. Baseball, with his dad! And it was something he had planned in advance, since he had the tickets already, which meant that he had planned to have time off just for Stiles before the whole issue with Peter. It felt nice that his dad had realized that Stiles would feel a bit left alone with Scott gone and had done something to help. So Stiles felt kind of shitty for not being happier on top of everything else.

“So,  how often do you run through the preserve in the middle of the night all alone when I’m working nights?” his dad interrupted his thoughts. Shit, he had totally forgotten that he had done that. Well, he had at most hoped that his dad had forgotten about it.

“Ehm… This was the first time?” Technically it wasn’t even a lie, usually he didn’t run through the preserve, he just… Spent time there when he needed some change of scenery.

“Stiles.” Damn, that was his dad’s disappointed voice, and if he wasn’t driving it would have been followed up by a disappointed stare too. Stiles hated to disappoint his dad so he scrambled to try and explain himself.

“Well, usually I don’t go as far as I did this time. Truly, it’s just. Sometimes when I can’t sleep, and you’re not home, the house feels too empty. It helps to go out for a while. And then I read somewhere that exercise can help with insomnia, so I decided to give it a go. I didn’t exactly plan to run so far, but then I heard Peter screaming, and I couldn’t just leave him there, dad, he needed help! And I’m not sorry, because if I hadn’t been there then Peter would have woken up in the future all alone and scared and, and.”

“Hey, kiddo. Breathe. I’m not angry about Peter.” His dad interrupted, “you did a good thing there, it just worries me that you were out and about in the first place. And frankly, if you ever hear anyone being in trouble again, call me before you do something.” 

“I was going to! But he sounded like he was being hurt and I just, didn’t think. I couldn’t very well just let somebody get murdered now could I?”

“Stiles, you are not helping yourself here. It’s not your responsibility to keep the people of Beacon Hills safe, it’s mine. And I don’t want you to get hurt. I’m not saying you shouldn’t help if you see someone in trouble, but not at the expense of your safety.”

“…Sorry.” Stiles was feeling awful. He didn’t think he could promise to react differently because he would probably not be able to keep it, and he tried to not lie about the important stuff to his dad. But he didn’t like to make him worried either. His dad sighed.

“Son, just… Can you just promise to not go out in the middle of the night?”

 Well… He could probably promise that. And keep it for at least a month… Maybe.

“…I can try?”

His dad laughed a little at that.

“Well, that will have to be good enough for now I suppose.” He smiled briefly at Stiles before focusing on the road again. Stiles felt relieved, it didn’t seem like he would get punished for being out late, even if he kind of deserved it. His dad was absolutely awesome.

~ ~ ~

The future was… plaid. Peter didn’t really know what to think about that, he had never really been a fan of the stuff, but apparently, it had prevailed. Plaid and graphic tees, and a bit too large ones at that. Or maybe Stiles just didn’t like formfitting clothes? Peter needed more input on the subject, so he should maybe try and get some answers from the computer. Stiles had said he could look up anything, so fashion had to be available. Peter eyed the computer a bit suspiciously, it took up almost no space at all, was apparently portable and not at all anything like the ones that he was used to. Well, Violet did have something similar he thought, but he had never really cared for the stuff, or well, he had thought it had too little to offer for the time it took to actually do anything with a computer. Except for writing, writing on a computer was kind of the only thing he used the communal one for.

He carefully poked a key to get the thing to wake up, something Stiles had told him to do and then logged in as a guest. Passwords were also a thing that was important in the future, he liked that, way easier to keep things private that way. But it was a bit annoying to not be able to snoop through Stiles’ files. Probably for the best though, because that would be a bad thing to do to someone who had been nothing but helpful. Not that it would have stopped him, but well, there would be later opportunities, he was sure. Maybe Stiles would even show him some of the stuff that was important to him, Peter could frame it like a request to try and learn more about the future. Even if he kind of just wanted to learn more about Stiles.

The program Stiles’ had used to show the potential of the internet was still running, and there were three tabs open; Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube. Stiles’ had said that Google was a search engine, and that was what he wanted right now.

He tried typing in fashion, and then clicked the button for pictures. The window filled with way too many women and most of them seemed to be high couture. Not what he was after. He typed in men too and got way better results. And apparently plaid was not the next best thing, so he could happily avoid that. And baggy clothes didn’t seem to be a thing either, but well, he got mainly adult trends what he could see. Maybe teenagers dressed differently? Well, of course they did, but if he would try and be aged up a year, it wouldn’t hurt if he actually dressed like an adult. And he kind of liked some of the styles. He looked around until he felt like he would be able to actually go to a store without feeling lost; he gathered that if he went to something upscale enough it would be alright. He just needed money first. Hopefully, a trip to the vault would take care of that.

He looked up how much he had actually brought with him, a few hundred bucks. Probably enough for at least one outfit, but he needed a whole new wardrobe, and he hadn’t enough for that. And he would also need money for his new identity because it couldn’t be cheap to buy one of those. Well, the sheriff seemed to want to go a more legal route, but that seemed highly unlikely to work. He knew that Talia had known somebody who dealt with stuff like that, but Talia was not there to help, so he was on his own. Maybe there were papers in the vault? They used to store all kinds of things there after all, why not a complete set of instructions on how to start a new life? Peter kind of itched to go look for himself but… Leaving the house alone, felt bad. So he stayed.

He felt thoughts of his dead family were creeping up on him, and he paused for a moment. Could he afford to let them in when he was alone? He really wanted to shift, but he didn’t trust himself enough to go through with it. He looked up when the next full moon would be instead. At least Stiles’ computer was fast and useful. He would probably need one of those too.

He had a little more than a week before the next full moon. Nine days, that was not a long time at all. Maybe enough to get in touch with another pack or maybe find Laura and Derek, but he wasn’t sure about that. He didn’t want to announce to the world that he was back and alive, after all, someone had murdered his family and he didn’t know if they were still out there. It had to be hunters, but it could be another pack too. But that was not likely since the land had not been claimed, so most likely hunters. 

He looked up mountain ash; maybe Stiles or the sheriff could use it so he could shift safely? He wasn’t really sure how to make the powder, but it seemed to be quite easy to get hold of the wood. Would it be enough to just burn some and gather the ash after? Or did he need an emissary to do some kind of ritual for it to actually do something? God damn it, why had he mostly focused on other supernatural beings and not on werewolf vulnerabilities when he had access to the pack library? Hopefully, there would be some books left in the vault, but would they contain this information? It was that they had emissaries for, and the books on the more mundane stuff had been stored in the house. Was it feasible to find information on the internet? It was worth a try.

~ ~ ~

Noah was pleased with himself; baseball was one of the few sports he and Stiles actually agreed was great. He had tried getting into lacrosse for his son, but as he had yet seen his son on the field it had been hard. But baseball was great because it was something they shared that did not remind either of them of Claudia. And they rarely got to actually see a game at a stadium, so Noah made sure they had the full experience, sans the beer, with hot dogs and loud rooting and all. It had been nice, and Stiles had managed to actually get into it and forget about Peter for a while. At least Noah thought so. He should probably talk about Peter with his son, but he didn’t want to remind him during the game. But now they were on their way back to the car, for the hour-long drive home. Did they need to talk about Peter? So far Stiles seemed to handle the situation way better than Noah, but that was maybe because Stiles was a bit more trusting about the boy. He didn’t think that Stiles was worried at all that Peter would hurt him, at least not like Noah worried. God, the whole werewolf thing was crazy. They really did need to get a hold on Laura or Derek Hale so they could help. At least Laura should be a fully functional adult about now, so she should be able to take responsibility.

He also worried a bit about what state they would find Peter in when they got back. He knew it had been massively irresponsible of him to just leave the boy alone when he had just had his world more or less destroyed, but Noah had looked forward to the game with Stiles. He had planned it as soon as he had learned that Scott would leave for the first few weeks of summer, and he had even managed to keep the whole thing a surprise for his son. That rarely happened; he hadn’t managed to get Stiles a birthday or Christmas gift he wasn’t already aware off for years.

He had asked Graeme to drive by the house a couple of times during the day as a small gesture. She had been one of the deputies that had been on watch duty the night Peter was found, so she knew something was up, just not exactly what. He didn’t really expect anything to happen, not anything that could be seen from the outside, but it didn’t hurt to have a solid police presence in the neighborhood anyway. He would really need to figure out what to tell his deputies when he got back to work the following day.

As they approach the car Stiles brushed up against his shoulder.

“Dad…?” Huh, he had probably missed something again, damnit, he should be better at listening to his son.

“Yes? Sorry, did I miss something?”

“Nah, I just… Thank you for this.” Stiles looked a bit abashed, so Noah had probably missed something. Well, he decided to not press the issue, Stiles would tell him again if it was important.

“It’s no problem. I know I work a lot, and this summer will probably be worse with Cross and Robledo leaving, but I still want to spend time with you.” He draws Stiles in for a one-armed hug, “you are the most important thing to me, you know that right?”

“…Yeah dad, I know.” His son gives him a brilliant smile, “can I drive?”

“Not on your life, you’ve got your own car now so I don’t have to share my anymore.”

“But daaaad! Roscoe doesn’t run yet! Do you want me to forget how to drive? It’s important to keep driving to keep the skill up, the responsible thing would be to let me drive us home.”

Noah laughed but stood his ground. He liked to drive damn it so Stiles would just have to cope. But he promised to help with the jeep, he was no mechanical genius, but he had wrestled with that beast before so he should at least be able to help find what was wrong.

~ ~ ~

Peter didn’t find anything useful, not about ways to keep a werewolf contained at least. He did find massive amounts of references to something called Twilight, both books and movies, but the lore seemed dumb and not related to reality. Sparkling vampires, like that would ever happen. Well… Maybe if they got cursed or something? Not that Peter was sure vampires actually was a thing, but well, werewolves were real so why not? But he highly doubted that they would sparkle. And the thought of a werewolf imprinting on a baby… He shuddered, no, just… no. The whole notion of soulmates was dumb anyway. Peter didn’t believe that he was destined for just one specific person, that was just… What the hell would somebody do if their supposed soulmate was abusive? Live without love for the rest of their life? That was stupid. He concluded that he was not skilled enough to actually find useful information when the internet seemed to be so full of bullshit, so he gave up his search. Books were better, he would stick to them for the time being. He just needed to get hold of some.

He looked up some random things on Wikipedia instead, mostly to keep from searching his lost family and friends. He wasn’t ready to know about them. He looked into politics instead. It was kind of fun, Bill Clinton had had an affair and been impeached for it, which seemed silly, but stayed in office. The next president had won without actually having the popular vote, but since he had been reelected he couldn’t have done too bad of a job. And now they had a black president. He liked that, maybe there could be some progress in the US after all. Peter knew full well that he was privileged, as growing up in a rich white family. And his want to abolish racism was mostly selfish because if werewolves would ever be found out they would probably be treated worse than the human minority groups. But it still felt good that the American people had been progressive enough to actually elect a non-white dude. …and the governor of California was the Terminator. How did that happen?

He got kind of lost in the trap that Wikipedia was, he though Stiles should have warned him about that. There was always a link to click on, and it was an easy way to bury every notion of his lost family. So far he kind of liked the future; he just wished he had gotten there the usual way. Who knew what would have happened if he had not run. Maybe his pack would have survived or maybe he would have died with them, both options seemed like a better outcome than him alone and anchorless. Well, no, he didn’t think it would have been better if he died, dying was not an option, but he hated feeling like he could have done something when it was too late.

As he started to feel like the wonders of the internet no longer was capable of keeping the dark thoughts away, Peter got up from the computer to see if Stiles had any music. He hadn’t mentioned music before, but surely he still listened to it?

~ ~ ~

They got back to a dark house, which at first made Stiles worry that Peter had left. He instantly felt guilty for leaving, and for having such a good day with his dad. But the sound of music that met them when Stiles got the door open put at least some worries to rest. That Peter played Enya of all artists made Stiles blush. Peter had found his old CD collection. His collection that was filled with mostly nineties pop and well, Enya. Stiles really should have told him about Spotify before leaving, because now he would have to live with Peter knowing about Stiles’ very embarrassing love for boy bands. He was less ashamed of the Enya thing, her music helped him sleep, so he had an excuse for that.

“Peter?” Stiles called out into the house as he entered, heading up towards his room as the music is coming from there. He didn’t get an answer and he found the other boy sleeping on his bed with a book lying beside him. He could see traces of how Peter had looked through his stuff, and surprisingly he didn’t feel annoyed. As long as he hadn’t actually found the loose floorboard in the closet where he kept his more private things at least. But Stiles didn’t think Peter would search that deep, he seemed to have focused on books, music, and clothes, probably to get a feeling for what was normal now, and Stiles couldn’t fault him for that. It had been nice to be asked, but well, he would have done the same thing if he had been in Peter’s situation.

He looked over the other boy again, he looked peaceful, and Stiles hated to wake him up, but they had brought dinner on the way home. It would taste better if it was still warm. He made his way to the stereo and turned the music off, thinking it would be easier to wake Peter if it was silent. That turned out to be true right away as Stiles heard a low growling noise only moments after the music stopped. He froze and felt for the first time a hint of fear since learning that werewolves were real. He slowly turned towards the bed, where Peter stared at him with shining golden eyes that were blown wide open. As he made eye contact the growling became more intense and now Stiles saw that instead of his normal human teeth, Peter’s mouth was filled with sharp large fangs. He looked like a cornered animal with nowhere to run. Stiles suddenly understood how the Little Red Riding Hood had felt when meeting the wolf. Shit, this was not good at all. Stiles didn’t move an inch in fear of what would set Peter off.

“Boys? Everything okay up there?” The sudden shout from his dad made Peter’s attention snap from Stiles towards the door and where his dad was. Before Stiles could react, Peter flew up from the bed heading straight for the door.

“Peter! No!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... I didn't expect that ending. ...sorry?
> 
> If you have the time, please leave a comment. Thank you for reading.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jay! I managed to actually keep my deadline. At least in my timezone. So from now on, I will try to update Mondays. 
> 
> It's a bit shorter than I'd prefer, but it will have to do. Hope you'll like it. 
> 
> Thank you all for your comments and kudos! And I'm frankly blown away by the number of people who have subscribed to this.

Peter had a very pleasant dream. He was back with his family, listening on the music that Violet loved so much and always played when she or anyone in the pack had had a long day. It was soothing and Peter liked it even if he would never actually say that out loud. They were all cuddling together, the younger children sleeping but Peter was idly listening on his alpha talking about a new movie she wanted to see with her husband. It was nice, it wasn’t something they did often, having the whole family gathered together like this, but when they did it was nice. Peter felt like he had missed this, more than he usually did, but didn’t question the comfort of pack.

Then suddenly something disturbed the peace, Peter couldn’t really put his finger on what, it was some kind of noise, like a door opening, someone calling his name, but that was absurd. Everyone was already there, there was nobody coming, he forced himself back into the music, the peace of the moment. He was with pack, family, everything was alright and nothing could harm him. He was safe.

And then suddenly it just, stopped.

As soon as Peter opened his eyes he knew something was wrong. His pack was gone. He was not at home, and there was a stranger in the room with him. Everything was off kilter and he had no idea what was going on. He felt his fangs grow and knew his eyes shone, but didn’t stop it. He scrambled up into a sitting position, pressing back at the wall. He was not safe and his pack was missing and he had no bonds. No bonds at all. He was disoriented and his pack was missing, and who the hell was in the room with him? He barely heard the low growl he was letting out but then he met the wide blown brown eyes of the stranger and he bared his teeth at him in a clear warning to stay away. He could hear the other… boy? Yes, boy, human, his scent was familiar but he was not pack so it didn’t matter. The boy’s heart was beating rabbit fast and Peter tried to make sense of everything. He didn’t feel like he should be afraid of the boy, but he was not pack and where were Peters pack? They were missing and Peter was so alone, but something kept him from just going into his full partial shift, and the boy seemed familiar, but he was not pack. Why was Peter alone?!  

When the sudden shout from somebody outside of the room made clear that Peter was not only missing his pack, but he was also outnumbered, Peter didn’t think anymore. He felt his claws grow, his face shift and he flew out of the bed towards the door. He would not be kept like an animal. He needed to get the fuck out right now.

~ ~ ~

Stiles threw himself after Peter as he vanished out of the door. Everything happened too fast, but Stiles needed to stop Peter before he did anything to his dad. Shit, was that claws? He hurried after the escaping werewolf, hoping that he would catch up before he got to the stairs but it was useless, Peter was too fast. When Stiles reached the top of the stairs Peter was already halfway down. To Stiles’ horror, his dad came running from the kitchen, practically blocking Peter’s path, who scrambled to a halt and frantically looking back and forth between Stiles and his dad.

“Dad!” Stiles didn’t think, he just knew that he couldn’t let Peter harm his dad. He tumbled down the stairs, barely keeping his balance, but before he got to the other boy Peter vaulted over the rails and beelined for the back door.

“Stiles!” His dad caught him in his arms as he came crashing down and both Stilinskis stared as Peter forced himself out through the door, leaving it hanging slightly askew in his wake. Stiles tried to follow him but his dad held him back and they saw Peter vanish into the woods. The only remaining sound was the soft creaking of the broken door as it slowly began to close again.

“So, Peter’s really a werewolf huh?” His dad sounded stunned as he let him go, and Stiles took a few steps towards the broken door before he stopped. He would not be able to catch up to Peter by foot.

“Yeah, he had claws and fangs and everything.” Stiles abruptly turned around, “dad! We have to stop him, what if he hurts somebody? It would be my fault! He was asleep and I must have scared him or something, and now he’s all wolfed out, and what if somebody sees him?” How could he have been so stupid, sneaking up on a werewolf like that, he would never forgive himself if Peter got hurt, or hurt somebody else.

“Hey, calm down kid,” his dad drew him into a hug, “it will be alright. I don’t think Peter will hurt anybody, he didn’t do anything to either of us, right? He just wanted to get away.”

Stiles drew a few calming breathes, okay. Peter just needed some space, he didn’t hurt his dad. He kind of destroyed their door though, he had to be scary strong to do that.

“But we can’t just leave him, he’s all alone!” It was easier to think now that Peter wasn’t a threat anymore. Stiles was actually a bit ashamed that he had thought Peter would hurt his dad, but well. It was his dad, Stiles would always put him first. 

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to try and corner him right now, how about we give him some space and if he isn’t back in a few hours we go check out the old Hale house? He will probably end up there sooner or later if he doesn’t come back here. And I need to see what I can do about the door, we can’t just leave it like that.”

“But… what if…” There were so much that could happen, and it would be Stiles’ fault.

“Hey, it’s not your fault. And Peter will be fine. He has been a werewolf for seventeen years, I’m sure he knows how to handle himself.”

“But he lost control! Claws dad, claws!”

“Yes, but he didn’t hurt anyone.” His dad took a deep breath before he continued, “I’m guessing he woke up confused in a strange place and his first instinct was to run. So we let him. He didn’t attack me when I was blocking his exit so he won’t seek out anyone to attack just for the sake of it.”

Stiles reluctantly agreed to wait a bit before going after Peter. He ended up setting the table as his dad did something about the door. He was still a bit shocked, and he felt guilty as hell that he and his dad was about to actually eat when Peter was somewhere out there doing god knew what all alone. He was probably scared as well, and Stiles itched to go search for him. But his dad did have a point, Peter did run from them, so he would probably not react well if they tried to catch him. It would be best if he came back on his own, but Stiles wasn’t sure he would.

~ ~ ~

Peter was running without any real goal. He had managed to get out of the strange house without issue, well, he did break a door, but he didn’t get hurt at least. The other man had smelled faintly like gunpowder but not of wolfsbane so he was probably not a hunter. Everything was still jumbled in his mind. He had been with his pack and then everything just, was wrong. He was alone, and the absence of his family was throbbing in his chest and he didn’t know what had happened. He knew he was missing something, something important and he would probably get it if he just, calmed down, but he was all alone and scared and alone…

So he ran.

It was easier like that. He didn’t shift fully; it felt like a temptation that was too great to give in to. He knew it was a bad idea to even be partially shifted, but it was easier to let things go like this, and he didn’t want to think. For just a little bit he wanted to just, run from everything. And it was easy to stay away from humans with the enhanced senses the shift gave him. Not that there were many out and about in the woods, but he did manage to avoid a teenage pair that was way too occupied with each other to notice him and a guy that was walking his dog.

He was getting calmer as he ran. He still avoided thinking about anything real, he just, started to notice things about himself. For one thing, he didn’t have any shoes on. It helped a little actually, to feel the ground beneath his feet, but it also meant that he needed to either go home or back where he came from. Both options made him uncomfortable, and then he was feeling weird because he was feeling uncomfortable going home. Why didn’t he want to go home? No, he didn’t want to think about it, running. Running was good. The ground beneath his bare feet was good.

He must have been running for the better part of an hour when he found himself in a clearing with the largest tree stump he had ever seen in the middle. He knew that tree. He had been here before.

As he stumbled towards the stump he felt his claws retract and face smooth out. He didn’t need to be shifted here, it was a safe place, he could feel it in his bones. Nobody could hurt him here. He fell down on his knees beside the tree. Trying to calm down and figure out what had actually happened. He just needed a moment, he was not lost in a panic anymore, he could sort this out.

He winced as he remembered, his pack was dead and he had run away from the ones who had taken him in.

Stiles.

He had run from Stiles. Thank gods he didn’t attack neither of them at least. But how could he go back there now? He had lost control in front of them. He had forced himself out for their home. How would they be able to trust him now? How could he trust himself? But he would have to go back, they had all his money. And… he needed someone. Stiles and the sheriff had taken him in, they had cared for him, he wouldn’t have that luck twice in finding good people. And they already knew that he was a werewolf, so maybe they would take him back?

He stayed at the tree for quite a while. He was still shaken from the dream of his pack. It hurt how much he missed them, but somehow the tree helped. It didn’t feel as magical as it had when he fell asleep next to it a few nights ago, but it still felt safe. And he desperately needed to feel safe for just a few moments before going back and face the consequences of his disastrous behavior.

~ ~ ~

Stiles was pacing the house. Peter had been gone for two hours, and he had finally managed to get his dad to go look for him. He really wanted to go with but had been forced to agree to stay home. He sort of understood why it was necessary if Peter came back someone needed to be home to let him in, but it was hard staying behind. And he was worried what would happen if his dad did find Peter and Peter didn’t want to come back. Stiles thought he would be able to convince the other boy to come home, but he wasn’t so sure his dad could. And his dad had taken his gun with him, what if he felt like he needed to shot Peter? It would be Stiles’ fault, and he hated that.

Stiles ended up cleaning the kitchen. It was easy busywork that at least distracted him a little bit. He got a few messages from his dad telling him that Peter hadn’t shown up at the Hale house yet, and it didn’t seem like someone had been there either. The last one said that he would wait there until eleven and come home after that. Stiles looked up the time, almost ten. So Peter had only one hour left to either make contact or avoid his dad depending on his mood. Or maybe he wasn’t in the vicinity at all? Maybe he had gotten hurt? Maybe he was lost in the preserve somewhere and would die of exposure? Could werewolves get lost? That seemed like something they should be able to avoid, but Peter hadn’t been in his right mind when he ran from them. God, maybe he had fallen and broken something and he didn’t have anything with him. It was all Stiles’ fault, he would never forgive himself if Peter ended up hurt or even dead because of him.

Before Stiles could work himself up to a real panic attack there was a soft knock on the door. Stiles dropped the soapy sponge he had used to clean the stove and rushed to the door. Before even thinking that it could be someone nefarious he threw the door up and stared at the person outside.

“Peter!” Still not really thinking he threw himself at the other boy and hugged him tightly. “I was so worried! And I’m so, so sorry, I shouldn’t have sneaked up on you like that, are you hurt? Can I get you something? Where did you go?!”

For a moment, Peter just stood there, doing nothing, but before Stiles could back off Peter tentatively put his arms around him and hugged him back, nuzzling into his throat and taking a deep breath.

“Could we maybe please go inside?” He sounded so insecure that Stiles’ heart broke a little, and he quickly ushered the other boy through the door without letting him go completely. He managed to close the door behind them and a tension in Peter’s shoulders eased. Like he was glad to be back.

~ ~ ~

Stiles was amazing. And maybe way too reckless for his own good. Peter had been blown away by his welcome when he got back. He had hoped for the Stilinskis to at least hear him out, but instead, he had been met with open arms like nothing had happened. Or, at least like he hadn’t lost control and broken down their door. Well, Stiles had, the sheriff didn’t seem to be home.

“Better? Do you need anything? Do you want food? I’m so sorry, dad and I already ate, but I can heat something up for you if you’re hungry?” As Stiles asked that Peter felt the hole in his stomach. He hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, being lost in research and memories the whole day.

“I can eat… but maybe I can take a shower first? I’m kind of filthy.”

Stiles looked him over like he hadn’t noticed his sorry state before, “your poor feet! You don’t have shoes on, how are you not freezing to death?”

“It’s summer? But a warm shower wouldn’t hurt.”

“Yes! You go do that, I will fix you something to eat. And call dad. It’s okay that he gets back right? You’re all back in control, no feelings of claws or fangs or anything?”

“Yes Stiles, I’m fine. I just, well, we can talk about that later. I promise I won’t lose control like that again.” He gathered that the sheriff had gone out to look for him, and felt a small tug of gratitude for the man. He hadn’t just washed his hands off him when he ran, even if he had no obligations he had actually cared enough to search for him. It felt nice.

Peter made his way up to the bathroom and showered. It felt good getting clean again, and it was nice to surround himself with a small bit of Stiles’ scent. It made him feel more like he belonged there, not yet part of a pack but not a total stranger either. The sheriff got back before he finished his shower, but as he didn’t storm the bathroom to kick him out Peter decided to take his time anyway. He raided Stiles’ wardrobe for new clothes, feeling a bit guilty, but not enough not to do it. He wanted to feel clean, and he needed to have as much of Stiles’ scent on him as possible. He needed to make sure that if he ever got back to act on pure instinct he would know that Stiles was safe. That Stiles was someone he could count on. And being immersed in his scent would help with that.

~ ~ ~

Stiles sent a quick message to his dad telling him that Peter was back. He felt a bit bad for forcing his dad to go out in vain, but his relief having Peter back overshadowed that by miles. Peter was back, and safe, and Stiles hadn’t ruined everything. And Peter hadn’t hurt anyone either! Well, at least it didn’t look like he had. He had been a bit dirty, and well, his feet had looked miserable, but no signs of blood anywhere and surely you couldn’t claw or bite someone without getting bloodied? So Peter was fine, and safe, and maybe he would be less nervous about shifting now? Stiles would very much like to see what Peter was capable off when he was in control and not going only on instincts. Because fangs and claws when Peter didn’t seem to know who he was, scary. Fangs and claws when Peter was in control, that sounded kind of awesome. And Stiles wanted to see how strong Peter was too, he had torn down the door without even slowing down, he had to be super strong. And probably fast. It was just so much to learn, and maybe Peter would be inclined to show at least a bit about it now that he had proved he wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Stiles prepared all the leftovers from their dinner, so it was ready to be reheated when Peter got down. It was not as good when reheated but at least there was a lot of it. Peter had not taken anything from the kitchen when he had been home alone, and Stiles was worried he hadn’t eaten at all. That was not healthy. Werewolves probably needed more food than humans, not less. At least it would be reasonable that they would as they needed fuel for their abilities from somewhere. Or was it all due to magic? Did magic have rules? Surely it must have rules, otherwise, anything could happen and that was just, dumb. Well, okay, it had the possibility of being awesome in the literal sense of the word, but still. Rules were important, even if only to know how to break them without getting caught.

Peter seemed to have rules at least. He had been worried he would lose control without his pack, and that had actually happened. So maybe he needed a new pack? Well, okay, that was obvious, but how would they find one? The best thing would be the remaining Hales, but how to find them?  

Stiles was finishing putting the cleaning stuff away when his dad got home. Peter was still upstairs in the shower, Stiles could relate, he would too spend quite some time getting clean if he had spent a few hours barefoot in the woods.

“Stiles?” his dad called as he got into the house.

“In the kitchen!” Stiles called back but headed to meet him anyway.

“You alright?” his dad first drew him into a brief hug before holding him at arm’s length looking him over.

“Yeah, dad. You were right, Peter just needed time to calm down,” Stiles started, giving his dad a reassuring smile, “and he really needed a shower, he didn’t have shoes dad! I drove him out of our house barefoot! At least he wasn’t hurt, but he could have been! What if he had stepped on something?”

“Hey, it was not your fault, sometimes things just go wrong. And Peter came back didn’t he? Let’s go sit down and wait for him to come back down.” His dad steered him towards the kitchen table, making him take a seat. Upstairs the shower stopped, and they heard how Peter went into Stiles room, probably to find something to wear.

“What shift do you have tomorrow? Do you think you have time to drive me and Peter downtown? He really needs to get some new clothes.”

“We really need to get that car of yours working, I thought I would be done driving you around when you got your license,” his dad grumbled, “I have the morning shift, but can probably swing by at lunch if you want.”

“And have lunch at home with us? You’ve had takeout three days in a row now, so really, you have used up this month’s rations.”

“I get to have takeout more than three times a month! Do you want me to drive you or not?”

“Not if it means you will eat yourself to an early death! Is it because I gave you bacon yesterday? That was clearly a mistake, no more bacon for you!”

They bickered some more over his dad’s eating habits. It was easier to fall back into old worries than to think too much about the conundrum that was Peter. At least for Stiles, but he was fairly certain that his dad felt the same since he played along with it.

~ ~ ~

When Peter got back down to the kitchen the two Stilinskis were amicably arguing about the sheriff’s eating habits. He felt a bit weird interrupting them, but he was hungry and Stiles had promised him food. He halted in the doorway when he smelled the stronger scent of gunpowder on the sheriff. He must have his gun on him, that was worrying. He must have made some sort of noise because the other men stopped talking and looked up at him.

“Peter!” Stiles quickly got up from the table and went to start the microwave. “I hope you like Thai food because that is what we have. Or well, I could maybe make something but that would take time, and it’s already late, and you must be tired.”

“Thai is fine,” Peter interrupted, he didn’t really care much as long as it was food.

“Good! Please sit down, this will be ready in a few moments.”

Peter carefully sat down opposite the sheriff, “sir. I just want to say, I’m really sorry about earlier. I woke up wrong and was running on instincts for a while.”

“It’s alright,” the sheriff started and made sure to make eye contact with Peter. “You didn’t hurt anybody and the only casualty was a door. Help me install a new one tomorrow and were even.”

Peter relaxed a bit more, nothing in the sheriff’s scent spoke of deception and his heartbeat was steady. Peter had truly lucked out with these people. He nodded, “sure, I can do that. I don’t really have any experience with carpentry but if you just tell me what to do I’ll do it.”

“Well, you will probably do better than my son. He always ends up researching the best way to do something and leaves me to do the actual work.”

“Hey! I resent that,” Stiles said as he put an overflowing plate with food in front of Peter. They then started to bicker about the best way to change a door, with Stiles ending up retrieving his computer to research it. Peter didn’t say much as he concentrated on eating, but he soaked the comfortable atmosphere in the kitchen and felt better than he had since he had so abruptly woken up a few hours earlier. He wasn’t with a pack, but he felt like maybe he could have a place with Stiles and his dad. At least for a little bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No cliffhanger! And next chapter we will hopefully see Peter getting some answers. 
> 
> Who should Peter meet first? Deaton or Laura? Any wishes?


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jay! Update on a Monday. If I manage it next week it will be a habit. 
> 
> I'm absolutely floored by all your lovely comments, thank you all so much! And for your kudos and subscriptions and bookmarks too. I do mostly write because I like it, but it's highly motivating to know that there are people out there that likes what I do. It keeps me motivated to keep my Monday deadlines, which makes me feel like I accomplish something, all good things for me, especially the last few weeks where it frankly has been an accomplishment to get out of bed before noon.
> 
> Anyway, a new chapter. Enjoy!

Noah managed to get the kids to bed before midnight. He didn’t think Stiles would get to sleep too quickly, but at least they were both in their separate rooms, safe. The day had taken a lot more stressful turn than he had expected and he guessed he would have trouble getting Stiles to leave Peter alone for the next couple of days. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Seeing Peter’s shifted form would probably haunt his dreams for a bit, there was no way to explain away his disfigured face with something normal like drugs. And the kid had looked terrified of him! It was hard to accept how somebody with that strength, fangs, and claws could be so scared of a simple human. He had broken the door like it was paper for God’s sake. But waking up in a strange room when dreaming about his lost family would disorient anyone he supposed. Noah could relate a bit to that, he could still wake up thinking that Claudia was still alive after dreaming especially vividly of her. God, he missed her so much. She would have loved that werewolves and magic were real. Stiles was so like her it hurt sometimes.

God, he really needed to get to sleep, he had an early shift the next day and he needed at least a few hours to manage. Could he really leave his son alone with Peter though? He didn’t think Peter would lose control when he was awake, but waking up seemed to be an issue. And leaving Stiles to handle a confused newly awakened werewolf alone… Maybe he should take a sick day? He never skipped work, he could get away with it just once, surely? But if something did go wrong he would be responsible. They didn’t have enough manpower for him to stay at home at the moment. Not at this short a notice anyway.

It took a while for Noah to go to sleep, debating leaving his only son alone with a supernatural being without actually getting to a resolution. The lack of sleep was probably the reason he actually left the day after, going on routine and sort of forgetting the whole thing until he already was on his way. He let that be a sign that it was okay to go to work, if he sent a text to Stiles asking when he wanted him home for dinner just to confirm he was okay, that was nobody’s business but his own.

~ ~ ~

Peter woke up when he heard the sheriff get up to start the day. He had somehow managed to sleep the night through, but he still felt off. The lack of his pack was excruciating and the only thing he could think off to deal with it was to push it away. Was he an omega now? Technically he had to be, but he didn’t feel like he was out of control, but that could be because he was an expert at suppressing his emotions. Why hadn’t anyone ever told him what to do if he ever became an omega? Get a new pack probably, but how did you do that? The pack had only learned that they should always stick with the pack to keep from going omega, there had never been any information on what to do if it actually happened. Why hadn’t Peter been curious about that? The easiest way would be to find Laura and Derek, but he had lost their bonds too. Why couldn’t Talia or Violet have survived instead? He was certain that he would still have had bonds with them if they were alive.

He burrowed his nose into the shirt he had stolen from Stiles’ laundry the night before. Stiles wasn’t pack, but his scent had started to feel comforting none the less. He contemplated getting out of bed, but he didn’t want to talk to the sheriff. The man didn’t seem angry about the incident the day before, but Peter still felt leery. He didn’t want to meet him without Stiles, not yet. He was actually a bit surprised when the sheriff left for work, he had not been sure he would be comfortable with leaving Peter alone with Stiles. Huh, maybe the man had not been scared by his outburst the day before? Or maybe he just trusted him? But how could he do that? Peter was a werewolf with a questionable ability to keep in control. He shouldn’t be trusted.

He got up when he was certain the sheriff had actually left. He was a bit stumped on what to do. He didn’t want to wake Stiles up, he deserved to sleep for as long as he wanted, so showering had to wait. And he didn’t want to eat breakfast alone, so that had to wait too. He did pee and brush his teeth though, he didn’t think a human would wake up from that. He then took stock on his clothing situation, his jeans were clean enough to wear after he had brushed some dry dirt off. His jacket was okay too, but he probably needed to loan a fresh shirt again. But that could wait until Stiles had woken up, and he had showered. He decided to work out in the meantime. He had only had the panicked run the day before, otherwise, he had been unnaturally still for the last few days. Wolves were not supposed to be motionless, he had to remedy that.

He risked the outside for a morning run, leaving a note on the door letting Stiles know that he would be back within an hour or two. As he didn’t have shoes suitable for running he went barefoot and ran in the woods. He was probably a sight to be seen, bare feet, sweatpants that were just a tad too tight and no shirt. But it was early enough for the woods to be vacant, and he managed to go quite a few miles before heading back. At least he had a good sense of direction, the Stilinskis didn’t live anywhere near his old home, but he was certain he would be able to find his way back there no matter how far he ran. He did experiment with shifting. Not going full wolf, the thought of that still scared him, but he managed the partial one without any control issues so maybe he would be able to show Stiles later. He realized that he wanted to show Stiles everything he could, but he was a bit nervous about it. He didn’t want Stiles to be scared of him, but it would be better to find out if he could accept his werewolf form early because if he would be rejected for it he wanted to know before he got even more invested than he was.

Stiles was still asleep when he got back, as it was still before nine Peter let him sleep. Instead, he started with a basic workout in the living room. He missed having some equipment, but he made do. And he would never admit to secretly wanting Stiles to find him working out, he was above posturing like that.

~ ~ ~

Stiles went through his normal morning in a slight daze. He really should sleep more, but he had learned early that the whole day was off if he didn’t stick to his morning routine. He had the whole thing programmed from his alarm; wake up, pee, brush his teeth, shower, lazily get off in the shower, get dry, check if he needed to shave, deem it unnecessary and finally get dressed. It was the same routine he had had for years, well, some additions had been made as he grew up, the shaving was the latest, but on the whole, the first ten to twenty minutes of his day had been the same since he was eleven and he finally got a therapist who knew anything about how to deal with his ADHD. Routines, Adderall and post-it notes, and accepting that his brain worked differently than others, it had changed his life. 

 He was going downstairs for his Adderall when he saw Peter doing push-ups on the living room floor, in full sight from the stairs and was abruptly remembered of that they had a guest. Stiles missed a step and had to do some serious acrobatics to not fall but somehow managed to make it down in one piece. His antics had gotten Peters attention though, and he was met by a worried werewolf when he finally managed to get his bearings. A worried, sweaty very, very muscular werewolf without his shirt on.

“Are you all right?” Peter had the gall to actually sound concerned when he was the reason for Stiles clumsiness to begin with, with all his muscles and bare skin and so much defined muscles.

“Oh my god! You… I… What?” Stiles probably stared at Peter’s abs a bit more than was appropriate, how the hell did he have abs like that? It had to be a werewolf thing, not even Jackson had abs like that and he worked out like his popularity depended on it. And it probably did as he was the biggest jerkface in school. Damn, Peter must have been one of the popular guys, right? That was not good, not good at all.

“You almost fell down the stairs, you’re not hurt are you?” Stiles finally managed to meet Peter’s eyes, and he looked worried but there was also a tiny twinkle in his eyes like he was pleased or amused by something.

“I’m… fine. Just fine and dandy. I usually stumble down the stairs at least twice a day so I just got one off early.” He desperately tried to figure out where to look, it was awkward staring into someone’s eyes too long after all and he couldn’t look at Peters body again, god damn it he needed a distraction, why did he come down again? “I came down for a reason, why did I come down again? Well, you don’t know, how could you know?”

“Maybe breakfast? I think your dad left a note for you on the fridge too,” Peter smiled at him as he carefully escorted him to the kitchen like he would stumble without support.  “I should go take a shower now that you’re awake, can I borrow a shirt?”

“Shirt, right, because you don’t have one. We really need to go shopping, yes, of course, you can borrow a shirt, my closet is your closet or not really since well, it’s mine and you have your own in your room we just need to fill it with clothes too, I should just stop talking now I think.”

Peter actually laughed at him and left with a thank you. Stiles felt a bit humiliated, why couldn’t he be cool and just not ramble things at people? And why did he have to be so clumsy? Peter was all muscles and grace and Stiles fell down the stairs. It was the second time in Peter’s presence too, but he didn’t think he had noticed the day before. At least Peter seemed to like him anyway, he didn’t look at him with contempt like so many in school did, so maybe he would not hold his shortcomings against him? Maybe, just maybe, Peter would be like Scott and like Stiles for himself. That would be awesome. Because he didn’t think he would be able to suppress his ramblings in the long run, and he would never be graceful. Sure, his dad said that he would grow out of it, but Stiles didn’t believe that. He had always been clumsy, it was highly unlikely he would stop just because he got older. It hadn’t worked so far after all.

He got to the note his dad had left him, it was one of his regular ones with a simple good morning and a reminder to take his meds. Right. That was what he had gone down for. He was still a bit amazed that his dad always knew when he would need to remind him, how did he do that? How could he know that Stiles would get distracted today when he usually managed just fine? Well, there was Peter, but still. His dad couldn’t know that Peter would train half naked in the living room now, could he? Did he know? No, his dad couldn’t know, and he definitely wouldn’t know that a half-naked Peter would distract Stiles so thoroughly, Stiles didn’t even know he would do that! Why did he do that? Damnit, he liked Lydia. Lydia with her strawberry blond hair and quick, but a bit cruel wit and she was way smarter than anyone knew. And her very much female figure. Stiles was loyal, there was no reason for him to start crushing on new people. He had Lydia damnit, even if she had ignored him since third grade, he had a plan god damn it!

What was he doing again? Right, meds.

He quickly got a glass of water and his pill and swallowed it down. Today was not a day to skip on the Adderall, he would have to be able to focus on helping Peter. And maybe it would be a bit easier to remember his priorities. Peter was a new shiny thing to play with, but he was just a friend. Stiles liked Lydia, and Peter had just lost everything. Maybe he if he just repeated that to himself enough he would be able to handle Peter without getting distracted by stupid inappropriate feelings. He liked Lydia, Peter was just a friend. He liked Lydia, Peter was just a friend. He liked Lydia, Peter was just… looking awesome is Stiles favorite red shirt. Damn it, stupid brain, no.

~ ~ ~

 Peter took a quick shower, not wanting Stiles to eat breakfast without him. He felt more relaxed by the workout, a bit more settled. And it had been fun to get a little bit under Stiles’ skin, but he should probably be a bit more careful not to distract him in the staircase again. He didn’t want him to get hurt after all. And he should probably not be too forward, not before he was certain that he liked Stiles for real and not just wanting him as a distraction from everything bad. Because Stiles would be a glorious distraction, but if that was all he was… That would irredeemably hurt his possibility to stay in the Stilinskis good graces, and it would be a very bad way to repay them for their kindness. But Stiles felt right, it was just, the absolute worst fucking timing at the moment.

He still chose a shirt that smelled like Stiles wore it often, and he knew he looked good in red, so there was that too. When he got back down to the kitchen he found Stiles looking like he had an argument with himself, and there was a definite spike of interest in his scent when he noticed Peter.

“You’re back,” Stiles said, and then grimaced like he couldn’t believe he had said that.

“Yeah, I figured the food is here and exercise makes me hungry,” he smiled trying to look friendly. He didn’t want Stiles to feel bad about himself because of Peter.

“…Right. Breakfast. Are toast and cereal okay?” Stiles asked but started to set the table without waiting for an answer, “we used up the eggs yesterday, we should really go shopping, if my car was working we could go to a diner, but there’s something wrong with the engine that I haven’t figured out yet.”

Peter silently helped, and was then fascinated with how Stiles managed to talk and somehow eat without it being gross at the same time. Somehow he got talked into helping Stiles look over his car, Peter had never done anything slightly mechanical in his life but Stiles had looked so hopeful that he just couldn’t help himself. And they did have a few hours before lunch that they needed to fill with something.

He got a bit nervous when Stiles took his computer with him to the garage, what kind of car needed a computer to check the engine? But he found out that it was because Stiles used it to search for possible solutions to what could be wrong. They managed to figure out at least three different faults, and Peter tried to suggest that maybe it would be better to let a real mechanic take a look at it but to no avail. Stiles had decided that he would sort it out himself and professionals were expensive. Peter then learned that Stiles would work at the sheriff’s department, starting next Monday, during the summer to earn enough money to buy the needed parts. His goal was to have the car up and running to when school started again in the fall. Peter got the sense that Stiles hated taking the bus, but Stiles didn’t elaborate on that and Peter didn’t ask. Stiles seemed sort of reluctant to talk about school at all and, since Peter didn’t know what he wanted to do about that yet, he didn’t press.

He did learn a hell of a lot about the car though. The baby blue jeep had belonged to his mom and hadn’t been used since she died. His dad hadn’t had the heart to neither drive it nor sell it and Stiles was thankful for that. Well, at least for the not selling bit, he was less pleased about what over six years of neglect had done to the engine, but at least it had been stored inside. Peter thought that it looked kind of unsafe, especially for a human but didn’t say that. Stiles loved the thing enough to even name it, there was no upside to say anything bad about the car. He did miss his family’s cars though, well, mostly he missed having access to a car at all but he would have preferred something a little bit, nicer, than the jeep if he had had a choice.

~ ~ ~

The house was suspiciously silent when Noah got home for lunch. At first he thought that he had gotten the time wrong, but he found the table set and there was something simmering on the stove. He took a quick peek and it at least smelled good, but it looked like it mostly contained vegetables. It looked about ready though so he turned the heat down to the lowest setting before he went to inspect the fridge. Maybe there would be something meat-based as a side dish? He found a large bowl with a salad, but that was it. Well, he did get to eat take out several days in a row so he shouldn’t be surprised, but sometimes it would be nice if Stiles was a little less concerned about his health. He did see that the meal apparently should be served with pasta since everything was prepared for that to cook so he started to heat the water up and then went to find his missing son and houseguest.

He found them in Stiles room, where Peter was reading something on Stiles’ computer, and Stiles was furiously tapping at his phone. He cleared his throat and startled Peter, but Stiles didn’t react at all. Well, at least they were not both completely unaware of their surroundings. He was still surprised he had caught Peter off guard, but he took it as a sign that the boy felt safe at their home.

“Stiles, did you forget the cooking midways again?”

“Huh? What? Dad?” Stiles almost threw the phone at him as he finally realized he was there, but somehow managed to keep a grip on it. Seriously, how Noah had fathered such a spaz of a kid was frankly astonishing. He couldn’t remember Claudia being that clumsy either, it was just something Stiles had managed to cultivate all on his own. Peter snickered at Stiles antics but refrained from saying something. Smart kid.

“Well, you said lunch would be ready at half past twelve, and that is in about three minutes, so at least to me it looks like you got distracted.”

Stiles sputtered at that, “but I had an alarm! I… Peter, did the alarm go off?”

”Yes, and you said you would deal with it in ’just a minute’ and then continued muttering at your phone. Something about Scott being hopeless I think.”

“Oh.” At least Stiles looked a bit abashed at that, probably mostly because Peter was there, Noah had long passed gotten used to Stiles forgetting what he was doing because of something more interesting.

“Well, I started to heat up the water, so it should be boiling soon. How about we go finish cooking and you can tell me about what you have planned for the afternoon.”

They all ventured down to the kitchen, Stiles did most of the work since he knew what he was cooking to begin with but Noah got out a few bottles of water and the salad. He kept from complaining about the lack of meat too since it really wasn’t fair to say anything when Stiles had done the cooking. He got to hear the boys’ plan of getting some new clothes and a haircut for Peter and to let Peter see what had changed since he got back. He also got to hear way more about Scott’s latest crush than he really needed as they started eating. That boy could fall in love in an instant, maybe he should be glad that Stiles’ had had such a reliable source of affection all these years? And Scott didn’t seem to have any better luck than Stiles even if he was better at making contact with his crushes. He did notice that Stiles was very quiet about his own crush on Lydia, which usually would have been brought up as a comparison how she was a lot better than any girl Scott liked. That was a promising development, if the only consequence of Peter being here would be that Stiles at least had a few doubts about his infatuation with Lydia Noah would be in his debt. Even if that meant that he would have to have a new embarrassing conversation about sex with his son. Damn, he probably should do some research of his own on that, just in case.

He found that he did like Peter though, it was easy to forget that he was a supernatural being with probably the most tragic life story Noah had ever encountered, because he was polite and seemed a bit shy. He had apologized again for the day before and then reassured him that it was not likely to happen again. At least not until the next full moon which was over a week away. They would hopefully have gotten to some sort of solution for Peter before then. Noah told him that he had made contact with both the insurance agency and the Peter Hale Foundation to ask if they had any way of contacting the remaining Hales. The insurance agency had been a bust, but the foundation had told him that Laura usually checked in about once a year so they could leave a message for him next time she did. It would probably not be until around Christmas though, because that was when she usually called but at least it was something.

Noah didn’t talk much when he drove the two boys downtown. It was always a bit awkward having real passengers in the back seat, with the meshed barrier between them and the front and the seating wasn’t really comfortable either. Noah should probably have gotten a civilian car too, but frankly, he didn’t need the expense and it had been just him and Stiles for so long that it hadn’t really mattered. And it didn’t hurt that the people of Beacon Hills saw him driving around the town. It was just good policy to be seen, especially on election years. Stiles had no problems keeping the conversation going, fortunately, and Noah was glad to see how his ramblings made Peter relax.

When he let them out he promised Stiles that he would pick them up after his shift ended. They should have plenty of time to get everything Peter would need for the next few days, and if anything happened they could always call him. He watched them disappear towards the barbershop he used, apparently decided that that was the first thing to take care of. It was probably for the best, a new haircut would go a long way to change Peter’s appearance. Noah was sure that it would be enough, people generally saw what they expected to see, and nobody expected to see a teenage Peter Hale again. Noah hardly believed it, and he had seen irrefutable proof that the boy was a werewolf which made magic a lot easier to believe. He just hoped that they would be able to keep Peter safe from the trouble that had found the rest of the Hales because if trouble found Peter, it would irrefutable find his son too. And he wouldn’t have that. Maybe he should reach out to some of his more, unsavory contacts. He didn’t want to do an official search to get in contact with Laura or Derek, not until he knew a bit more of how the supernatural politics worked at least, but he had some old army friends that weren’t all that concerned with keeping it at the right side of the law. Maybe one of them could be of help now. It was worth a try.

~ ~ ~

Shopping was boring. Boring and confusing frankly. Peter had looked good in his almost shoulder length hair, but he looked absolutely stunning in his new short kind of messy look. Stiles had also found out that Peter was a bit of a snob. Stiles usually just bought his shirts online, and when he needed new jeans he just bought the first pair that was comfortable. But Peter tried everything on, and he was very particular what he liked too. Stiles stopped paying attention after Peter had tried over ten shirts on to only pick one. Peter was too good-looking, and Stiles didn’t want to think too much about that, so it was easier to not look too close.

 Stiles didn’t know a whole lot about fashion, but Peter ended up looking like he belonged in a magazine. As the hours went by Stiles started to feel more and more like Peter would grow tired of him as soon as he got acclimatized to the future. Well, future for him. Sure, he seemed to like Stiles’ talking, but he was so good looking and confident, and he had this whole flirtatious persona with the store clerics that Stiles hadn’t seen before. He found himself being a bit jealous and that was extra confusing. Stiles really wanted to call Scott and discuss these feelings with him. Scott got attracted to new girls all the time, it never went anywhere. Was this the same thing?  Was it only a stupid crush on a gorgeous boy that happened to be magic? He tried to picture Lydia instead and it helped a little, but still, the last interaction he had had with her had been her ignoring him when he wished her a good summer. Not very encouraging.

“Hey, I think I’m done now, how long do we have until your dad finishes work?” Peter interrupted his thoughts. It was a relief really. Finally.

Stiles checked the time, “about an hour and a half I guess. We can go grab an ice cream as we wait if you want? There is a really good ice cream parlor just a few blocks from here.”

“That’s one option,” Peter began and then pause, looking a bit uncertain, “or maybe we could go check out my family’s vault? Maybe they left something for me there to find. I’m not really supposed to show any outsiders where it is, but I think I can be forgiven to show you.”

“You have a secret vault?! Really? Of course, I want to check it out. Where is it? Is it far, you have bought quite a lot of stuff, we can go drop it off at the station if you want?” Stiles felt like he was almost vibrating with excitement. Peter had to like him is he wanted to show him his family’s secrets right? Maybe he wouldn’t get abandoned as soon as feasibly possible after all.

“I actually bought a bag for that, I figured I would need one eventually anyway so it’s no problem,” Peter said and held up a duffel bag, filled with his purchases. Well, that was one way to do it he supposed.

“Right, and you’re super strong so you have no problem carrying it either,” Stiles nodded, “so, where are we going?”

“Well, the vault is under the high school, and there is at the main entry to the school, but I don’t think we can get in there unnoticed right now. But there is a backdoor access tunnel that you can get to in the woods at the back of the gym.”

“Under the school? How did you keep that one secret?!” It got even better, frankly, meeting Peter was the best thing to ever happen to Stiles, well, Scott was probably still on top actually, but a close second at least.

“Well, our family did donate the land it’s built on, we just, kept a bit to ourselves, I don’t know how they did it, it was built way before I was born. And only a Hale werewolf can access it, without one of us you wouldn’t even recognize where the door was.”

“Okay, someday you will have to tell me all about your family’s history, it seems awesome! Now, let’s go, I want to see the secret vault. Under our school! With a magic door! Magic! It’s too cool to be real.” Stiles started to walk dragging a laughing Peter with him, it would probably take at least half an hour to get to where Peter said the tunnel started, but that would leave them with at least an hour in the vault. A secret vault that nobody else in school knew about. This was awesome. Way worth the confusing feelings about Peter’s good looks. And Peter trusted him! Stiles! This was the best day ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someday I will manage to write about more than half a day in a chapter, but this was not that day. But next up, Peter will finally get some answers about his family, probably more than he is ready for as well.
> 
> Comments are highly appreciated, please leave one if you have the time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had the ambition to finish this yesterday but had totally forgotten that my nephew turned two, so had to scramble to get him a present and then spend most of the day with him and his family. At least there were mostly grownups there, and the food was good. But damn if kids aren't exhausting. I really hope my sister has enough children now. 
> 
> So I kind of goofed when I imagined the Hale vault last chapter, so it's a bit different from canon. Mostly because there are hardly any pictures of it so I just made stuff up all along, and I learned way too late that the entrance was actually outside and the one inside was a back entry. So I scrapped that and put my back entry off in the woods. Because having the main entry in full view and then needing to actually get into the school for the back one? That seems stupid to me. 
> 
> This fic has over 300 kudos! It's kind of amazing. Thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me.

Peter felt a bit panicked as he led Stiles towards the secret tunnel to the Hale vault, he hadn’t planned to go there today. He especially hadn’t planned taking Stiles with him. What was he thinking? Bringing a human to the vault? Well, okay, they had brought humans all the time, but only pack, and Stiles wasn’t pack. He didn’t even know Stiles, not really, and Peter had no idea what he would find in the vault. Sure, to him it wasn’t even a month since he had been there last, but that was sixteen years ago. Who knew what his family and pack had done with the place since then. And now he was taking a stranger there. Gods help him, what was he thinking?

“…and this is way cooler than Scott having a summer fling, or a possible summer fling, so far it’s just a crush and he has them all the time…”

Right, he wanted to make Stiles happy. That was a sort of good reason. It had taken Peter some time to realize that Stiles wasn’t really that into shopping, but when he did he had seen that his potential friend had sort of withdrawn into himself and focused way more on his phone than on Peter. It wasn’t as fun shopping when he wasn’t admired, and he had offered up the vault to try and get Stiles attention back. Well, and his money was running low and hopefully he would find something in the vault that was worth something.

Panicked pushed aside, Peter spent the rest of the way telling Stiles about what he was hoping to find in the vault. Mostly it was books, but he held a small hope that maybe there was an emergency stash of funds there too. If not that would be one of the first thing he did after he sold off some of his collection. If his collection still was there.

It took some time for him to actually find the tunnel, it was hidden in a similar manner as the entry in the school and he needed to find the specific stone that held the lock. There were a lot more shrubbery than he remembered but he finally managed to find the stone and got his claws out to open it. Before he actually sank his claws in he scanned the area for anyone who would notice them but found the immediate area deserted. There were some kids playing lacrosse at the field not far from them, but they were focused on their game and hadn’t noticed him and Stiles. He took a deep breath and then pressed his claws into the markings. A flash of blue light emerged and then a hole opened up in the ground between two large trees. There was a stone staircase leading down into a tunnel clearly man made with walls of stone.

“Oh my god!” Stiles squealed beside him, “that was so cool! Will it close after us? It has to right? Because that is a seriously big hole for anyone to find.”

“Yeah, I can close it after we have gone there. Follow me.” Peter quickly went down the stairs, he didn’t want the tunnel exposed any longer than necessary, and Stiles followed suit. On the wall at the bottom of the stairs was a corresponding marking and he pressed his claws into that one too, the entry silently closed behind them, leaving them in darkness.

~ ~ ~

Stiles had to suppress a rising sense of panic when the light disappeared. He couldn’t see a thing, and the tunnel that just moments earlier had been intriguing now felt more like a tomb.

“Uhm, so do werewolves come with dark vision or is this a serious design flaw of this place?” He tried to keep his voice steady, but didn’t completely succeed and frantically got out his phone. The display would at least provide a little bit of light.

“Ah, thank you, we can’t see without light completely, and I don’t remember it being this dark,” Peter said and dropped his bag on the floor before he quickly felt along the wall until he found something and pressed in, there was a click and then a stone shifted to the side revealing a hole but Stiles couldn’t see what was in it. Peter reached in and got out a flashlight, turned it on and then pressed the wall again to make the stone shift back.

 “I probably should have found this before I closed the opening huh?” he said holding the flashlight. Stiles put away his phone with a relieved sigh, the flashlight was quite bright and helped immensely with getting his sense of adventure back.

“Yeah, that had probably been smarter. Why hide it though? Wouldn’t it been easier if you just had a little shelf next to the markings?”

“Probably, but I think they liked the idea of being dramatic to the extreme when they built this place,” Peter said and then started walking down the tunnel. It was sloping slightly downwards but the air was surprisingly fresh and the tunnel itself was very tidy. The tunnel wasn’t that big, maybe eight feet tall, six feet wide so the flashlight managed to light it enough so Stiles could see that there were odd inscriptions on the walls every so often. He was dying to ask what they meant, but Peter had gotten disturbingly silent as he walked, keeping his focus ahead like he dreaded what he would find when they got to their destination. Stiles kept as close to him as he could without actually touching, because if Peter’s ancestors had paranoid enough to hide where they kept the light, they damn well would have put in traps too. Not that it seemed feasible for anyone getting in without a Hale, but maybe the claw thing as a key wasn’t infallible?  Or it could have been a later addition. Anyway, staying close to Peter felt safer, he kind of wanted to take his hand, but that was weird. Well, if it had been Scott it hadn’t been weird, but Peter was not Scott, he didn’t know Peter that well yet, and he had already made kind of a clumsy impression. He didn’t need to add coward to that.

They walked for maybe five to ten minutes before the tunnel suddenly stopped. Before them was a wall that somehow looked older than the tunnel and it was cowered in a large swirly pattern with three spirals connected in the middle with the same kind of sigil that Peter had used to open the tunnel. Peter didn’t even pause before his claws were out again and he had pressed them into the sign. The same blue light flashed as before and then the wall kind of, folded itself to the sides, making an opening into a small room that was kind of empty. There were some shelves to the right, and in one corner there were three boxes that looked like they had just been showed there in a hurry. Overall, the room didn’t contain much.

 It was actually kind of disappointing.

Well, he couldn’t see what was on the shelves, Peter kept the light on the boxes, so maybe there were all kinds of interesting stuff there. But Stiles had expected the vault to be bigger. He looked at Peter and just as he was about to blurt out something probably insensitive he saw Peter’s eyes flare golden and his nose twitch.

“Hey, you okay there?” He tentatively put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, trying to be supportive. He was really tense, but he leaned into Stiles a little bit before answering.

“The smell… You can’t smell it? It’s like the room is saturated in ash…” Peter almost looked afraid as he eyed the boxes, “I can’t stay here, just let me...” And he darted forward, shrugging Stiles off as he went and did something to the opposite wall and suddenly there was an opening there. As the new path opened the one behind them closed, making Stiles feel oddly trapped. It was now two walls behind him and the outside, and only Peter could get him out. What if Peter snapped again? Maybe this had not been the best idea after all. He followed him anyway, he didn’t want to be stuck in darkness on top of everything else.

The room he entered was huge. Stiles didn’t catch any details as he hurried after Peter who seemed to know exactly where he was going as the room swallowed the light in a whole different way than the tunnel had. They reached what looked like a more official entryway before Stiles had the time to complain though, and Peter did yet again something to the wall and suddenly the room was lit in a kind of blueish light that Stiles couldn’t see the source off accented by some spotlights strategically hidden in the floor as well as some kind of big lights in the walls. All in all it gave the room a very mysterious feeling and Stiles kind of got what Peter had meant with the builders being overly dramatic. The room was mostly empty, with some shelves to the sides and one sturdy looking safe on a platform in the middle of the room. All very dramatic indeed.

~ ~ ~

“Thank the gods this place still have electricity. It would have been tedious to search it with only the flashlight.” Peter resolutely pushed aside all the differences he saw in the room. He would not think about his dead pack right now, or the years he had lost. He needed to check if his things were still here, and check the safe for money. He could go through the rest some other time.

“I see what you mean with dramatic builders, to the safe come with traps too or have I played too many games? And did they seriously hide the freaking light switch?” Stiles voice was a little lighter than usual, and he definitely smelled anxious. Maybe Peter should slow down a bit, he did bring Stiles to make him happy after all, ha hadn’t really though how the other boy would react to being immersed in darkness and then more or less locked in. Peter needed to turn this around, make it exciting.

“They probably thought it would break the dungeony feeling of the place with ordinary switches, as for traps… I don’t think so. You do need to be a Hale werewolf to open it, but I don’t know what would happen if somebody outside the family tried.” That was actually an interesting question. But how to test that? He could invite some other were to try their claws, but it would have to be someone Peter didn’t like if it actually did something bad, and he didn’t want to reveal the location of the vault to someone like that. Maybe knock them out first? Well, that was something to think about later.

“Want to see where I kept my stuff? I hope it’s still there, I don’t think anyone else than me knew about it but maybe someone else went exploring after I disappeared.” It would probably be too much to hope for that his things had been left untouched, but he wanted to at least check.

“You mean you have some hidden place around here?” Stiles sounded a lot more excited again, and he looked around curiously.

“Yeah, there are actually quite a lot of rooms beside this one and the one we got in through. You just have to know where to look.” He took Stiles hand to drag him along as he went towards his specific corner. He found the rights stone to press and a new doorway appeared, but this was not the final destination. Everyone in the family had known about the first level of hidden rooms, but Peter had been a curious boy and had decided to find out if there were more to it. He urged Stiles to follow and went to one of the shelves and then found the hidden lever to make it open like a door, revealing a new room behind it.

“Woah! This is like from a spy movie of something! Are there more rooms? How did you find this one? How has nobody found this place, its huge!” Stiles was now definitely excited, and Peter felt a lot better. He went to the closed cabinet he had claimed as his own as he answered.

“There are no more rooms hidden by any shelves, all the other ones can be moved with some effort. But there can be other hidden mechanisms I haven’t found yet.” He opened the cabinet and found his books untouched. He let out a relieved sigh, at least he still had his collection. He quickly selected two books, one really old one about ancient magic that he could sell if he needed to for quite a lot and another one that he felt Stiles would probably want to read. It was a diary by one of his great aunts that had been a human that married into the pack. The language was a bit archaic, but her observations on being a human in a werewolf pack were accurate, sometimes downright hilarious and he felt like it would help Stiles understand him a little bit better. He turned around to find Stiles being fascinated by some jars and a small bag on one of the shelves in the outer room. He looked like he really wanted to touch but didn’t. Peter went to him to see what he was looking at. He peered at the bags and then sniffed a little, well, that was convenient.

“Ah, good find, could you take the bag? We’ll need that later.”

“What is it?” Stiles asked as he quickly grabbed the bag, “I really wanted to take it from the beginning but that would be rude, so I’m glad we need it, but why did I want it to begin with? It’s doesn’t look special.” He sounded confused.

“It’s mountain ash, humans can use it to keep most supernatural beings at bay. So very handy, if you’re human. I can’t do anything with it really.” It was intriguing that Stiles’ had been drawn to it, hopefully that meant that he would be better at using it. It worked for all humans, but it worked better for some, maybe Stiles had the makings of a druid? But they usually started way earlier from what Peter had read.

“Oh,” Stiles hesitated for a second, “so why do you want me to have it?”

“To protect yourself… it’s the full moon soon, I don’t know how I will manage that without a pack.”

“And this stuff will help with that?” He opened the bag to see inside, “how?”

“You make a circle with it, and I won’t be able to cross it. We can experiment when we get back to your place, do know what time it is? I need to check the safe before we leave.”

They had about forty minutes until the sheriff got off work, and Peter made sure to close all the hidden doors behind them as they made their way back to the safe. He told Stiles a bit more about mountain ash and he could see that he was dying to get to try it out. Peter was mostly relieved that they had found it in the first place, he couldn’t remember that they would have had any before, but he had never bothered to search for it either, it wasn’t something they usually used since it was impossible for werewolves to manipulate. And the humans in the pack were never at risk no matter how far out of control the weres got, you didn’t hurt pack.

The safe was mostly empty, there was the triskelion medallion that was usually used as a means to learn control for young wolves. Peter had never really needed it, but took it anyway. It had been used by so many Hales that it almost felt like it was imbued with the pack, he wanted that reminder. There were also a few wads of cash, mostly in hundred dollar bills, so Peter took one of those. He didn’t bother to count how much it was, because he could see that it would be enough for small expenses but not enough for big things like a car or new ID or stuff like that. And he didn’t want to leave the vault empty, it was obviously emergency money, and he wasn’t in an emergency at the moment so it would be better to save it. His book should be worth a lot more after all, he just needed some cash so he didn’t have to rush the sell. You never got the best price when you were in a hurry.

“Oh my god! Your family just have thousands lying around in a safe?! Man, you should get interest on that, this is not a reasonable way to handle money. Put it in a bank!” Stiles exclaimed as he peered around Peter to see what was in the safe.

“Banks are bad if you have to leave fast I gather, but it’s new keeping money here. They must have started after I disappeared.” Thankfully for him, but he still wanted access to the family funds. He really needed to get in contact with Laura or Derek.

“Hmm. Does that mean that you have even more in a bank? Well, you do have a freaking secret family vault, your family has to be loaded… Hey, there’s something for you here.” Peter got interrupted from his thoughts, what?

“What?” He looked at the shelve Stiles pointed to, it was at eyelevel even, so he didn’t understand how he could have missed it when he opened the safe, but there it was. A white envelope with his name on it. He didn’t recognize the handwriting, but it was definitely his name. He quickly put the cash and the medallion in his pockets and grabbed the envelope. It was light, so it probably contained a letter. He couldn’t smell anything on it, so it had to have been there for some time. He opened it to find a single page inside.

_Peter_

_I don’t think you will get back, but mom always said you were still alive so I mostly write this for her. She would have wanted you to have some way to contact us. It’s only me and Derek left and we can’t stay here. We are hunted. I don’t know why, or what excuse they had to murder our pack but I won’t let them take Derek too. So we will disappear. I kind of wish I knew how you did it but you were always smarter than the rest of us. Derek and I just have to do it the usual way. I won’t keep the phone on, but will check for messages when I remember._

_Call if you read this._

_Laura_

Under the signature there was a phone number and a postscript that urged him to check the back room. It was added in a different handwriting, maybe Derek had wrote that? He felt a bit lightheaded. He could contact his family. If they were still alive at least. It was. It was huge. He should feel more relieved than he was. A moment ago he wanted to be able to call them, now that he could… What if they wanted him to leave? If would probably be smart to leave Beacon Hills, but the thought of leaving Stiles behind was jarring.

“We have a number! You can call them! This is good, right?” Stiles sounded so exceedingly happy that Peter felt even more like his reaction was skewed. But it was hard, the last thing he remembered of Laura was that she had taken the last fruit loops and then tried to blame it on him and Derek had been this annoying kid that followed him everywhere. He had finally started to be at least somewhat interesting to talk to, but still, he had been six. And now they were older than him. And they seemed to think that he had stayed away on purpose. That he had abandoned the pack. Fuck.

“Peter, this is good, right?” Stiles repeated, now looking worried. Peter tried to pull himself together.

“Yes,” he hesitated for a moment, “yes. It’s good. It’s just… What if they want me to leave? I don’t even know what happened to me, I can’t leave.” He hated that he sounded so insecure, he was a werewolf for fucks sake. He should be able to handle contacting what should be his pack. He should crave it actually.

“Hey, they can’t force you to do anything if you don’t want to.” He paused for a minute and then, looking like he was a bit out if his comfort zone, he drew Peter into ha hug. “It’s not like they can demand custody or something like that, mostly because you don’t really exists at the moment, we really should try to figure that stuff out, but that is probably more expensive than even your emergency money would afford. But Laura should be able to help with that? ‘The usual way’ has to include new identities surely? And you look different enough with the new haircut and clothes that you won’t be immediately recognized, so you should be safe here. And my dad will protect you which is worth kind of a lot.”

Peter let Stiles’ ramble wash over him and leaned into the other boy’s arms, it’s comforting. They were almost exactly the same height. He drew in Stiles’ scent in a deep breath before he carefully disentangled himself, trying to not look embarrassed.

“Right, I should call them. Well, I don’t have a phone. I should get a phone first.” He was relieved by the blatant excuse, and Stile didn’t protest even if he probably would lend him his in a heartbeat. “But before that, we should probably check out the back room and then leave to meet up with your dad.” He closed the safe and took the books he had put on top of it. Stiles looked a bit too knowingly for Peter’s liking, but none the less followed Peter to the back room without protest.

~ ~ ~

The foray into the Hale vault had been a lot more emotional than Stiles had expected. Which had been dumb of him, of course it would be emotional, it was Peter’s dead family’s things. But he hadn’t anticipated that it would be such a rollercoaster for Stiles too. He was still a bit freaked out about being more or less locked inside a dungeon, and on top of that he had been drawn to what could only be described as magic dust. What did that mean? And he wasn’t sure he liked the implication that there was something that could entrap Peter that easily. Was that how the Hales had been trapped inside the house? Had someone surrounded it with mountain ash? It was horrifying. But it was probably good to have to keep someone out tough. He could get behind that.

He was a bit surprised that Peter hadn’t been thrilled to get a number for Laura. But maybe it was not so strange, a few days ago she had been eleven for Peter after all, they had probably not been all that close. He wondered a bit about that, Peter hadn’t even asked about his parents, they had not been in the fire, but as they hadn’t shown up after either they were probably dead too. Maybe they had died before Peter disappeared? And he hadn’t hardly asked anything about the fire. Was is still too raw? Probably. Damn, it had only been a couple of days. It had probably been a bad idea to go here without his dad.

They reached the back room, it was not hidden behind anything, not even a door, just a kind of large opening to a second chamber. It looked like an ordinary storage room, the shelves were filled boxes with neat labeling and there were some odd furniture there too. Peter quickly zeroed in on an armchair that looked really comfortable but a bit worn.

“They stored my chair,” he said quietly as he walked towards it and then sat down. “It was my favorite, it used to be in our library in my favorite spot by a window. I don’t know how many hours I spent reading in this.” He looked stunned, and Stiles though that it was probably time to leave before Peter became lost in memories. He was just about to say something about it when he saw a fairly big safe with a combination lock on it surrounded by boxes with Peter’s name.

“I think you have your own safe here, is it something all of you have or is it just you?” He asked as he looked around, he couldn’t find any other safes, but all the boxes were named. Some names were only on one or two boxes, and others had almost as many as Peter. Peter had the most though, if Stiles would guess they probably contained everything he had owned when he left home.

“What? That is new.” Peter got up and then approached the safe. He thought for a minute and then tried a combination. It clicked open. Stiles tried to see inside without crowding Peter but only got the impression that the two lower shelves held a lot of paper in neat stacks and the top one held a few binders and notebooks. Peter reached for the first binder and went to the chair to sit down again before he opened it. Stiles felt like he should give him a moment and looked at the paper instead. They looked kind of old and official looking. He didn’t want to touch it in case he would damage it, but he could sort of make out that it was some kind of bank note worth a thousand dollar. He eyed the stack, there were a lot of paper there. If every paper were worth a thousand dollars… there could be millions. He stared at the papers in disbelief, it didn’t feel real.

“…Ehm, Peter? I think your family left the fortune with you.” He didn’t get an answer, so he turned around to see what was going on. Peter was staring at the binder in his knee, it seemed to contain pages with something written on them, handwriting from what Stiles could see from the distance.

“Peter?”

Peter looked up, his eyes were golden and Stiles immediately tensed up. Damn, this didn’t seem good.

“I have a daughter?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a little bit of a cliffhanger. Poor Peter has got a lot of information thrown at him now, and he just wanted to impress Stiles a bit. He really didn't think that one through. 
> 
> Please leave a comment if you have the time. I love getting questions! 
> 
> I also have a [ tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/). Come say hi.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had a kind of good week last week, at least the beginning of it. I managed to write quite a lot, had a good meeting with a counselor who promised to pull some strings and met with friends and family. 
> 
> Then my fucking fridge broke down on Friday, so I had to throw away soo much food. And I noticed it too late to get in touch with my landlord, because a broken fridge is not an emergency so I just had to live without during the weekend. So this fucked up my writing quite a bit. Thank the gods that I had written almost 3k before that happened, because otherwise, you would not have gotten an update today. 
> 
> I got a sort of temporary fridge today, but they will have to remove a radiator before they can get the old one out and a new one in and I will have to let strangers into my home to poke around and I also need to answer the phone even when I don't know the number. It's wreaking havoc with my social anxiety. And they don't know when this will happen either! So it can be next week of a month from now. I hate it! And in the meantime, my already tiny kitchen is cramped because I have a stupid extra fridge crammed in there. 
> 
> Well, rant over. This chapter is a bit short. Sorry about that. Thank you all for your support and comments and kudoses (kudi? kudos?), they mean the world to me.

Shit, shit, shit! Stiles was not built to deal with stuff like this. Peter was a father? And didn’t know, so his kid had to been born after he disappeared, making her his age now. If she was still alive, was she still alive? He couldn’t ask that, what kind of insensitive dick asks if the kid is still alive when someone finds out they’re a dad? Not Stiles, that’s for sure. Damn, he wanted his dad.

“Uhm.” Crap, he really needed to figure out what to do. Peter looked floored, a reasonable response but not very practical. Stiles really hoped he would keep it together enough to get them out of there. Right. They needed to leave. Sunshine would make everything better. Being outside at all really. And Peter was a werewolf, surely outdoors would be better for him too?

“So, I have no idea about any of that, but maybe if we get out of here? Talk to my dad? If anyone knows anything it would be him.”

Peter just stared at the binder in his knee. Staring without seeing anything if Stiles was to judge. It reminded him way too much about how his dad would look at the bottle on one of his bad nights for Stiles to be comfortable. Should he try to snap Peter out if it or let him have a moment? With his dad, it was always better to leave him alone. But with Peter? How would he react if he had found out that he was a dad and that his daughter was probably his age because he had been asleep for sixteen fucking years and most of his family had died during that time too? Crap, he couldn’t even try to put himself in Peter’s shoes with this one. He could relate to the dead family, sure, but then maybe probably dead unknown daughter on top of that? After being asleep without aging for almost as long a time he had been alive? It was way too big for Stiles to handle. But they needed to leave, and Peter would want some stuff with him when they did, Stiles could handle that. He was used to handle the practical shit. It would probably be smart to take everything from the top shelve with them, if Peter’s family had stored it there for him to find it had to be important. It was way too much to easily carry though, so Stiles set out to find a box to put it into.

Peter’s boxes were neatly labeled, so Stiles quickly found one that just said school and took it out, it was on the smaller side, but would be big enough to hold the things in the safe. It was filled with books and notes and Stiles emptied it out on the floor unceremoniously. He didn’t feel like stuff from school was something to get sentimental about, and he didn’t have time to be neat. He then filled the box with the notebooks and binders from the safe, and he carefully took one banknote and put it into one of the binders for examination later. They needed to figure out if they were still legit after all because that amount of money would be helpful to start Peter’s new life.

He kept glancing back at Peter as he worked, but he didn’t seem to register much at the moment. That was not good at all, but Stiles didn’t know what to do, and he really wanted to get out of there. He looked around to try and see if he had missed something and spotted the books Peter had gotten from his hidden stash. That was so sweet, Peter the popular jock, at least Stiles had gotten the impression that he had been a popular jock, had a book collection that he had kept hidden from everyone. That combined with the knowledge the boy had about Star Wars had to mean that Peter was a closeted nerd. Well, closeted was probably the wrong word, it all pointed towards that he was straight, he had a daughter for god’s sake, he clearly liked girls.

 Stiles was kind of angry at himself for not checking out his book collection earlier, but the bag with mountain ash had been too fascinating, well the odd jars around had been interesting too, but the bag was what had caught his eye. Which was odd since the bag was a simple brown pouch made in some type of cloth. The jars had been in various sized and some had been made out of glass and contained some kind of plant matter. They should have been more interesting, but he had felt drawn to the bag. It was insane.

 He shook himself out of the stupid tangents and took Peter’s books and put them down in the box too. He then made sure the safe was closed and locked. Not that he feared anyone else getting in here to try and steal Peter’s money, the security was insane, but it was stupid to leave it open. He looked at Peter again, should he try and pry the binder out of his grasp? Or would that be stupid? Maybe he should just ask? What if he startled him to have another freakout? Peter had nowhere to run here, and the shelves were filled with things from Peter’s pack. This was a stupid place to be for a grieving werewolf. How could Stiles have agreed to this? He really should start to think about other people’s feelings and not only on what he was curious about. He hadn’t even asked Peter if he was sure he was ready to visit here. Ice cream would have been so much safer.

He cautiously approached Peter who hadn’t moved an inch, he was just sitting there, staring with golden unseeing eyes. Stiles didn’t think he had taken more than ten minutes gathering everything up, but it was still scary having Peter so unresponsive.

“Peter?” He reached out to touch the other boy's shoulder before he hesitated, maybe start with talking for a little bit first.

“I really want to hug you right now, you look like you could use a hug, but I don’t want you to freak out on me, we are kind of stuck underground and I really don’t think you can break your way out of here. I sure can’t so maybe, just maybe you could nod or something just to show that you hear me. Man, this is awkward, Peter? Well, this is a stupid idea but I will touch you now, please don’t kill me.” And he crouched down to get at Peter’s level and put a hand on his shoulder, praying that Peter would keep it together and not freak out on him.

~ ~ ~

Peter stared numbly at the letter in front of him.

_Your daughter was born today._

 Fuck, how did that happen? It was preposterous, he had never slept with anyone without protection. That was just being stupid and reckless, and he was not that.

_I’m glad I managed to convince Corinne that we should help with everything._

And he had definitely never slept with this Corinne girl either. But Talia did steal memories from him, and it was clearly written by her to him and why would she name him as a father after he had disappeared if it wasn’t true? But a daughter? He knew he should read on, find out more, what had happened to her? To Corinne? Who the hell was she? Why did Talia take even the memories of the girl from him? Had it been something traumatizing? Peter could see Talia do that, take his memories if someone had taken advantage of him, but how could anyone have done that in the first place? He was a werewolf for fuck's sake.

_Your daughter was born today._

He didn’t know how long he sat there. He was vaguely aware that Stiles was worried about him and fluttered around the room doing something, but he couldn’t care at the moment. He had trouble enough keeping his wolf down, trouble enough to process that he was a dad. He didn’t want to be a dad, but he thought it was even worse that he didn’t know how it happened. It must have been an accident, condoms were not infallible after all, but still.

_Your daughter was born today._

He hadn’t had sex with that many girls, especially not penetrative sex. He didn’t really want a girlfriend, and while many girls were down for some fooling around and mutual oral not that many wanted to go all the way. Not without commitment. But he always insisted on a condom if they wanted to go there. Even if they said they were on the pill. Because his family was rich, and that was just being responsible. But somehow he had gotten a girl pregnant anyway. Who the hell was she? He had never heard of her before. Sure, Talia must have stolen those memories, but he only had gaps for the last few months, so she must have been new to town. Had she duped him? Had she been a threat to the pack? Was that why Talia erased her and everything about her from him? Had he put the pack at risk?

He got yanked out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder.

“Wha… Stiles?” Fuck, he looked freaked out and he practically oozed anxiety.

“You back with me? I kind of want to hug you, can I hug you? You’re usually kind of cuddly, but I don’t know the protocol for this, how should you react when your friend finds out he’s a parent after sleeping for sixteen years? And last time I startled you, you got all clawy and stuff. Can I hug you? Please?”

Right, he had to take care of Stiles, they were here because Peter wanted to impress Stiles after all, well, he had fucked that up, hadn’t he? He didn’t trust himself to talk just yet but got somewhat gracefully down from the chair and onto his knees to hug Stiles tight. It was actually soothing feeling Stiles relax against him, and it eased something inside Peter when he felt Stiles calm down.

“I’m sorry.” He shouldn’t have checked out like that, he should have better control over himself. He felt like he was giving werewolves a bad reputation with how often he had let the wolf slip out without him meaning to. He could feel a desperate need to go full shift, everything was so much easier as a wolf but he didn’t trust himself to turn back. There had been too many revelations on too short of a time.

“You have nothing to be sorry for! But maybe we can leave now? I think this stuff will be easier to deal with at home.”

Stiles' voice was low and a bit hesitant, like he wasn’t sure his opinion was welcome, but Peter latched on to the suggestion like it was a lifeline. He resolutely pushed everything else down, Stiles wanted to leave, so they should leave.

“Yes! But I need… I need to collect…” he couldn’t finish the sentence, and drew in the steadying scent of Stiles to keep calm. Stiles wanted to leave, they should leave, everything else could wait.

“…Uhm, I packed a box with the things from the safe? And your books? I thought you would want them?”

Peter had to keep down a growl at the thought that anyone, even Stiles, going through his stuff, even if it was things he hadn’t known he had, it was still his, but pushed that feeling away too. Stiles hadn’t meant anything harmful with it, and it was helpful. He must have tensed though because Stiles’ heartbeat sped up, and the anxious scent got strong again.

“I’m sorry if I did anything wrong… I just.. you… I needed to do something!”

“It’s okay, sorry… Thank you.” The floor was starting to feel uncomfortable, and Peter gingerly disentangled himself from Stiles, making sure to make eye contact before continuing. “You did good. How about we get out of here now?”

They scrambled up on their feet and Peter took the box after he put the last binder in it. He noted the pile with school stuff that was left on the floor but didn’t bother to go through it. That could be for some other day. All his saved stuff could be for some other day.

They left to fetch the flashlight and for Peter to turn off the lighting, he left the bluish ambient light on. That was some kind of rune magic anyway and he wasn’t sure why it hadn’t been left activated to begin with. Maybe it wore off? Peter should really learn more about magic, his whole life had been altered by it, it had to mean that he could use some of it even if he was a werewolf. They made their way back through the tunnel, which was now lit in the same blue light the vault had been making the use of the flashlight obsolete. It was absurd really that the light could only be activated from the main entrance, he wondered if it would be possible to change that.

They walked in silence, Peter could sense that Stiles was keeping an almost as tight a grip on himself as Peter did, and he knew that the other boy would feel better if he just said something but he didn’t know what to say. He had not expected to find as much as they did. He had hoped for some money and his books and had instead found that and a way to contact Laura and on top of that that Talia had stored everything for him. And written him letters. And that he had a daughter. Fuck. How was he supposed to make sure Stiles was okay on top of all that? It had to be good enough, for now, to get them out of there.

~ ~ ~

The tunnel was a lot more fascinating when it was lit, not that the blue light was by any means bright it was still enough to show that the walls were actually quite beautiful. They were made out of large regular stone blocks with a smooth surface, and the inscriptions on some of them were sometimes flashing the tiniest bit of light, so tiny that it took a while for Stiles to actually understand that they did that and it wasn’t just something he imagined. He really wanted to ask Peter about it, but he didn’t want to intrude and since Peter was silent Stiles kept quiet too. He kept close though, because nothing in the vault had confirmed that there wouldn’t be traps, and sure, Peter didn’t think there were but hell, with hidden rooms within hidden rooms he would be stupid to assume that Peter knew everything about the place.

He wished he would say something though. Stiles hated silence like this, and he had to bite down hard to keep from starting to babble nervously. Man, he almost wished Scott was there. Scott would know what to say. But maybe that was just because he knew Stiles so well? Maybe he would too be a bumbling idiot where Peter was concerned. Nah, Scott usually managed to talk to people, as long as he wasn’t infatuated at least. Stiles really should talk to him though. They had only texted since he went to his grandparents and that had mostly been about his new crush. Stiles had not mentioned Peter. He wasn’t sure what to say, how could he possibly tell anything without revealing all? And Peter didn’t want that and Stiles had to respect his wishes. But he couldn’t talk about his confused feelings without mentioning Peter. There was no way Scott would believe that Stiles had just woken up feeling a bit gay one day without an actual person as a cause. Not when he had been so profoundly focused on Lydia for years. He felt a bit guilty for actually liking somebody new. Lydia deserved the world and the least he could do was to hold on to his devotion for her because he just knew that if she just gave him a chance they would be awesome together. She didn’t really need him though.

Stiles got interrupted from his thoughts by them finally getting to the stairs out. He silently fetched the bag with Peter’s new clothes as Peter put the flashlight away and then opened the way out. It was a relief to see the sun again and they both made their way out with a sigh of relief. Stiles quickly looked around to see if anyone had noticed them, fuck, what if somebody had been there? Luckily they were alone. He still felt a lot better after the hole had closed behind them. It was almost scary how untouched the ground looked, he really wanted to know how that worked. It had to be magic, no form of engineering could make fucking bushes disappear and reappear without change like that.

“So, that was,” Stiles started but got interrupted by his phone. There were several messages and then the phone started ringing. Shit! What time was it? He managed to get his phone out and saw that it was almost ten minutes since his dad’s shift had ended. Damn, he must have been without service down in the vault.

“Dad?!”

“Stiles! Where the heck have you been?!” His dad sounded slightly panicked. Well, fuck.

“Uhm, we were getting some stuff? I’m sorry, I didn’t notice I didn’t have service, we’re both okay I promise! Well, Peter found out some things, I don’t… Maybe you could just come get us? We can meet you at the school parking lot?”

“You’re sure you’re okay?”

“Yes dad, I’m fine. I promise.”

“We’re still talking about this at home, I’ll see you in a few.”

They hung up and Stiles gently ushered Peter towards the parking lot, he looked better now, but still rattled. Stiles tried to figure out what to say, it was stupid that he of all people had trouble finding words. He had always something to say. Stupid brain. When he most needed it, it just gave up on him. So he stayed silent, but kept close to Peter, not quite touching but there if Peter wanted to.

~ ~ ~

Being outside helped. At least he no longer needed to be responsible for Stiles, he still felt like he had miscalculated badly with his attempt to intrigue the other boy, but he couldn’t focus on that. His mind kept going back to that first phrase.

_Your daughter was born today._

He really couldn’t recall much else at all from the letter, just the name Corinne and that the birth had been hard but everybody had been fine. Was his daughter a wolf? Peter didn’t know. Who had taken care of her? Probably Corinne. But if Corinne had been Peters age… Would she have wanted a daughter? To her, it must have looked like Peter had run from his responsibilities. She must have hated him. Why did Talia have to take his memories?! And what the hell had she stolen? And how could she have allowed fucking hunters to trap them in the house to be burned? That was almost the worst of it all. How could a house full of werewolves have missed that? They must have been trapped with mountain ash and probably poisoned with wolfsbane and some sort of accelerant must have been present to kill all of them before help could arrive. Or had they not been able to call for help either?

How could Talia have let strangers into their territory without noticing? Where had the patrols been? For fuck's sake, Stiles had talked about several arsonists who had gotten caught. How the hell had they managed to sneak up on them without anyone waking up? Talia must have grown complacent. She had been so fierce and protective, sometimes going out in the middle of the night to investigate a strange sound. How could she had just, slept, when humans surrounded the house? When her children were inside? And for that matter, how could she have gone to sleep at all if both Laura and Derek had still been out? She had always stayed up for him, so surely she would have done the same for her own children? Peter had always believed that Talia was a good alpha, but maybe he had been wrong. Would a good alpha really steal someone’s memories without explanation? A good alpha would definitely not let her pack be killed like that. Maybe her belief that they didn’t need to be killers had been too naïve for an alpha.

Before Peter could delve too far into his rage and hurt they somehow had gotten to the school parking lot. Right, Stiles had talked to his dad. Peter really should pay more attention to his surroundings. He couldn’t afford to be this distracted when outside. He would have to wait to freak out until they got back to the house. He looked at Stiles, he looked sort of downcast but at least his scent was only slightly tinged with the sour smell of anxiety. He still carried Peter bag with clothes, which was one more thing Peter needed to be thankful for. Stiles had really stepped up for him, picking up his slack when he failed all over the place. Peter kind of hated that he needed the help, but Joseph had told him once that letting somebody help you was a sure way to get a friend. Peter had never really believed that, shouldn’t it be the other way around? But Stiles didn’t look resentful when he met Peter’s eyes, he looked a bit worried and like he genuinely cared.

“Are you alright?” Peter asked because he wanted to at least even the field a bit.

“Am I alright? Who the hell cares about me! I am fine, dandy, aces!  Are you alright? Dad should be here anytime now, so we can soon get home. And then we will sit down on the couch and put on some stupid movie and get pizza or something and just forget about everything for a bit!” He exclaimed in a high pitched voice. “If you want to? Because we can just get through all your new stuff too, but I think maybe it wouldn’t hurt to get some space for a bit?”

“A movie sounds fine, but I didn’t think you liked when your dad ate take away?” Peter kind of wanted three pizzas. Not that he had been starved at the Stilinskis, but all these slipups took energy and werewolves usually ate more than the normal human. Peter hadn’t wanted to say anything, because he was a guest and he ate enough to get by, but he kind of wanted to bury his emotions in food and wasn’t sure how to ask about that.

“Crap, you’re right. Well, I make a mean mac and cheese, which is almost as good. Well, it’s still a bit bad for dad, but it’s better than pizza. Do you think we can swing by the grocers real fast? We’re out of vegetables, and dad should really eat more of that and…”

Peter let Stiles rambling wash over him, it was comforting. He nodded and agreed when needed but mostly took comfort in Stiles being back to his normal self. He wanted to put the box down and cling to Stiles instead but wasn’t sure that was allowed. He could probably ask, Stiles had been fine with hugging earlier, but he didn’t want to seem needy. He had been needy enough for a lifetime these past couple of days.

When the sheriff finally got to then he looked a bit confused at the box Peter carried but he mostly smelled relieved that his son was alright. Well, a bit of that relief was maybe for Peter too, but it was mainly for his boy. It made Peter ache with longing for his family but he pushed it aside. He couldn’t afford those feelings. He needed to be strong, to keep control and feelings was just getting in the way. Maybe he would be able to afford to let them lose if Stiles could handle the mountain ash to keep him contained, but until then he just had to push it all aside. It was better that way. And maybe, just maybe, if he pushed hard enough he would stop hurting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to get so much further with this chapter, but I'm stuck. I blame the fridge. Hopefully, I will be back to normal tomorrow. 
> 
> Please leave a comment on your way out. I could use some kind words right about now.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive! This chapter was freakishly hard to write, mostly because of life reasons. At least I have a new fridge now. So that is good. But the whole thing made my writing all out of whack, but the last two days have been better, so maybe I'm back to regular in a week or two. Don't expect an update Monday though, but hopefully the one after that. 
> 
> As always, your comments and kudos are amazing, I love them. Thank you!

Noah had to really focus to keep from driving too fast. Only the fact that he was a public figure and had to set a good example kept him from speeding on his way to the school. Why the hell had they gone there? It wasn’t like it was open during the summer. Had they broken in? He wouldn’t be surprised if Stiles knew how to pick locks. Or had a key for that matter. But he usually kept his more questionable endeavors hidden from Noah, if they had broken in there was no way Stiles would want him to have any clue that they had been near the school. But getting some stuff? What stuff?

Noah would never admit, to either of the boys, that he had panicked when he hadn’t even gotten through to Stiles’ phone when he called the first time to see where he should pick them up. His mind had immediately flashed back to how monstrous Peter had looked when he had snapped the day before. You could do a lot of damage with claws and fangs like that. And he had let his only son be alone with him. Noah would never forgive himself if Stiles got hurt because Noah had been too trusting, but he didn’t see how he could keep them separated either. Or if he should because Peter had done nothing to warrant his mistrust. Except having fangs and claws. And that reasoning was kind of like when racists assume black men are criminals just because of their skin color. He was better than that.

He felt downright guilty when he finally got to the parking lot and saw Stiles ramble at Peter like he was want to do when he was nervous or didn’t know how else to cope and Peter looking at Stiles like he was the only reason he hadn’t bolted. Something had happened, true, but it hadn’t been Peter hurting Stiles. He also held on to a box like his life depended on it. And it wasn’t a new box. It wasn’t something they could have bought somewhere. It looked old and a little worn and Noah couldn’t for his life figure out where the hell they had got the thing. They couldn’t have broken into the school, could they? But Stiles didn’t look guilty when he saw him coming, he looked relieved, and he never looked relieved when he had done something Noah would disapprove of.

He parked the car and before he had the chance to get out to help with the boys’ things, they had both scrambled into the car, putting their belongings between them. He really should get a civilian car, whatever he asked now would sound like an interrogation with the barrier and all and he felt guilty enough for thinking Peter had hurt Stiles earlier. He didn’t need Peter to feel like a criminal on top of that too.

“Did you manage to get what you needed today?” He asked as he started to drive. Safe enough question, he hoped. He wasn’t too surprised when it was Stiles that answered.

“Well, Peter got some new clothes and shoes and stuff, and then,” he paused for a moment before he continued, “and then we visited Peter’s family’s super cool secret vault under the school. It was awesome! Secret rooms and passages and you have to be a Hale werewolf to get in and it’s under the school dad!”

Well, that explained the box.

“I see, that explained the no service thing then. Please tell me before going back, I don’t like it when I can’t reach you without knowing why.”

“Sorry sir, that was kind of my fault,” Peter intervened, “my family left me some things… I didn’t expect that.”

Stiles vehemently refused to agree that Peter had done anything wrong and then somehow the conversation turned to what kind of movie would be the best introduction to the new century. Somehow they decided on Lord of the Rings. How fantasy movies based on books published in the fifties would be a good fit Noah had no clue. But they were good movies so he didn’t think Peter would mind. He really wanted to know what had happened in that vault though but held back on his questions. He silently decided that the plan of buying a new door could wait, he just wanted to get the boys home and settled and maybe he would get the whole story out of them. They only did a quick stop to buy food, since Stiles was adamant that they needed more vegetables.

~ ~ ~

Stiles had the best dad. He could see how he had been itching to ask a hundred questions about what had happened in the vault but he held back and Stiles was really grateful for that. Being questioned when sitting in the back seat of the cruiser was never a fun thing, and it would probably be worse for Peter. Stiles was somewhat used to it, after all, he and Scott got into trouble often enough and Stiles would never let Scott bear the chewing out they got alone in the back. Another reason to get his car up and running as soon as possible, the jeep would be way better for conversation than the cruiser was. At least when they were more than two.

They got home way quicker than Stiles’ had anticipated too, usually, he and his dad bickered a lot more when they bought groceries together, but this time they were fast. Maybe because Stiles let a lot more slide than usual, but he just wanted to get Peter home so he would just have to confiscate his dad’s snacks later. At least they got healthy stuff too.

His dad turned to be even more awesome when they got home. As soon as he figured they would have mac and cheese he just took over cooking. Said that he was the grownup and he had taught Stiles how to make that anyway so for once Stiles would just have to deal with letting him cook. It suited Stiles fine, he mostly wanted to make sure that Peter was alright. He had been more quiet than usual since the vault. Not that he talked much anyway, but Stiles thought that was probably due to his situation right now. He had had no problem chatting with everybody when they bought his clothes after all, likely because he could pretend everything was normal for a bit. Stiles wanted to make him forget too. He knew they needed to talk about Peter’s daughter, and they needed to call Laura, but right now he just wanted to ignore everything except making Peter feel good again. He deeply regretted agreeing to go to the vault, it would have been so much better to just get ice cream and have waited a day or two to get all the information in the vault. At least then Peter’s day would have been a good one, even if Stiles had been kind of bored for the main part of it.

He found Peter in his room, it was a bit odd how fast Stiles had started to think about the guestroom as Peter’s, but he kind of liked it. He didn’t like that Peter had started to unpack the box though, that was so not part of the plan.

“Hey, whatcha doin?”

“I thought you were going to make dinner?” Peter looked a bit guilty, and Stiles didn’t miss that he didn’t answer the question.

“Dad took over for me, said that mac and cheese was something he was still better at cooking than me.” He was probably right too, sure Stiles was good at making the dish, it was one of the first ones he learned after all, but he never really got it just as good as his dad did.

“I see,” Peter said and now he had stapled all the binders in one neat stack and the notebooks in another on the kind of small desk. They didn’t leave much empty space to work on. The empty box was left unwanted on the floor.

“Do you really want to get into that before dinner? I thought we were going to watch a movie.” Stiles did his best to not sound whiny, Peter had all the rights in the world to read what his sister had left him, but Stiles didn’t want him to do it now. He kind of wanted to give everything to his dad and let him go through it and decide what would be best to do but knew Peter would never agree to that. Hell, if it had been something Stiles mom had left he would have been all over it as soon as he could. But then again, he hadn’t run from home after having his memories messed with just to end up in the future and finding out that he was a dad, he would absolutely want a break if that had happened.

“I just… I want to know why. Why did she take everything about the baby from me? I can’t even tell what I did a week ago, the whole last month is blurry and it’s not like the whole waking up in the future is helping either.” Stiles’ heart ached for Peter, he sounded so beaten. In a few quick steps, Stiles was at his side and put a hand on his shoulder.

“I get that, I do, but you checked out for a good five minutes last time. You deserve a break. You’re in the future, it’s kind of awesome, so why don’t we focus on something that is only good for a bit? Like, they have improved special effects like you wouldn’t believe in both movies and games now, and you can find out anything about everything on the internet, and…”

“Right,” Peter interrupted with a chuckle and leaned into Stiles a bit, “I believe you. Maybe you can help me figure out how to use this internet of yours? I tried to find some stuff about werewolves but only got pages after pages about something called Twilight? It all seemed kind of silly, who on earth thought that sparkling vampires would be a good thing?”

“Why do you need to find stuff about werewolves? You are one, shouldn’t you know already? Wait, are vampires a thing? That exists? Not the lame sparkly one, old school bloodsucking Dracula vampires?” Stiles wasn’t sure he wanted them to be real, werewolves were cool and all, mostly because Peter was awesome, but vampires were dead. And they ate people, that couldn’t be a good thing.

“I have never been an alone werewolf before, and we didn’t really talk about what happens when someone loses their pack, just that it is a bad thing and we should always protect the pack so that doesn’t happen.” Peter looked sad for a moment, but then shook his head, “and I don’t think vampires are real. Not the Dracula kind anyway. There is other were types though, so maybe there are werebats?”

“Whoah, how would that work? Like, they would hear super good but probably need glasses? Wait, could they transform into a bat? Would they be a really big bat or just regular sized? Where would the extra mass go? Wait, you can turn into a wolf? Right?” Stiles was sure he had said something about not wanting to shift, but maybe he could only transform into a wolfman?

Peter laughed a little, and Stiles got a warm feeling inside his chest, he did that. He, Stiles, made Peter laugh just by being himself no less. It was awesome.

“Yes, I can turn into a wolf, and I guess a werebat would turn into a regular sized bat. And magic makes a whole lot of stuff that science can’t explain possible.”

“That is both awesome and terrifying. Well, I guess only awesome would be enough, did you know that it used to mean fear-inspiring? Like, a tsunami would be awesome because it’s so incredibly destructive but nowadays we just say awesome about everything, even the small stuff.” A chuckle from Peter made Stiles take a breath and blush a little. “Okay, that got away from me a little.” He squirmed, why did he always lose control over his mouth like that?

Somehow Peter didn’t seem to mind, and instead, they both got into their favorite obscure words, Stiles’ was argle-bargle which means a massive amount of meaningless talking or text and Peters’ was douceur which is just another word for to bribe someone. Stiles though his word was better, because argle-bargle, even just saying it made him happy, but that Peter actually had thought about it before Stiles asked, that was probably even better.

~ ~ ~

Peter didn’t say much during dinner, instead, he let Stiles talk for the both of them. He couldn’t really shake the feeling that he should just dive into everything Talia had left him but at the same time feeling grateful for Stiles for distracting him. And he was doubly grateful for Stiles as he distracted his dad with tales of their day without actually saying anything real. He didn’t tell him about the note from Laura, or about Peter’s daughter but focused on the hidden rooms and how he had the mountain ash. The sheriff had seemed a bit averse to the notion that Stiles had some sort of magic affinity, but didn’t say anything discouraging. Peter thought it was mostly because the man didn’t know how magic worked and didn’t like his son to do something that could be dangerous. At least it kept him from asking questions to Peter.

Well, at least it did for a while. When they were starting to finish their meals, the sheriff put all his attention to Peter. It was a little scary, Stilinski seemed to almost look straight through Peter like he could see how shaken up he was even if he was certain that he didn’t show any of that outside.

“You’ve been quiet Peter, are you alright?” 

“I’m fine sir, just got a lot to process.”

“You’re sure?”

Peter nodded in response, he didn’t want to talk about it. He probably should talk about it, but he really didn’t want to. At least not with a grownup. The last time he had said something about his kid to a grownup he had lost all his memories of her. At least he thought that was what happened. The alternative was that he hadn’t known anything about it, and had done something else that had made his sister betray him as she had. It didn’t seem likely. And he knew that the sheriff had done nothing to warrant his unease, and it wasn’t like he could do anything similar to what Talia had done, but it didn’t matter. He trusted the sheriff with the knowledge of werewolves, he had no choice there, but his daughter… He wasn’t ready to tell anyone except Stiles. Not yet. Not until he read what Talia left him.

“Well then. We do need to figure out what to tell people about you. The deputies have started to be curious, no one has said anything yet, but it’s just a matter of time and I don’t want to tell them something you haven’t agreed to.”

Peter was stunned. He had expected the sheriff to push for answers on what had actually happened in the vault, Talia would never have just let things go and he didn’t even want to think on how his parents would have reacted to him deflecting the question.

“We should say that he ran from a cult,” Stiles said before Peter had a chance to answer, “like, a backward cult run by someone who idolized the eighties and didn’t approve of modern things and then Peter heard rumors about a suicide pact and he thought hell no and ran away. And maybe he had learned that he had distant family in Beacon Hills so he came here and met me and I made you help.”

Peter blinked at Stiles, that was not a bad idea at all. Well, not the suicide thing, that was a bit over the top but the cult thing he could work with.

“Suicide pact Stiles? Really?” the sheriff asked with a smile and Peter smiled with him, glad that he didn’t have to shoot down that idea himself. He was surprisingly reluctant to criticize Stiles.

“Well, there has to be some sort of reason why he ran, people born in cults gets brainwashed dad, he wouldn’t just wake up one morning and wonder how the outside world was.”

The sheriff sighed, “son, you do realize that I would be expected to investigate a tale of brainwashed suicidal people, right? We want a story that explains Peter without making me look bad because I won’t investigate.”

“Oh,” Stiles said with a disappointed frown.

“I used to get books from a coven outside of San Francisco, we could tell people I lived there? They at least used to be kind of removed from society, and if they’re still around I think they wouldn’t say no to back me up on that.” At least not if he could find something to pay them with. Sometimes money worked, but usually, they wanted something a bit more, unique. He didn’t really want to give them his blood if he could help it, but maybe there was something in the vault that he could use.

“Coven? Like witches? Witches are a thing? Dad! Witches! Are they nice Harry Potter witches? Or are they sacrificing babies to the devil to get power like in the old tales?”

“Stiles! I highly doubt there are a bunch of women making ritual sacrifices out there, people tend to be upset when children go missing, there would be no way they could get away with it.” The sheriff's voice was stern, but with a hint of disbelieving amusement.

Peter smiled at Stiles, his enthusiasm was adorable, “I don’t think they have sacrificed anything living, their main income was from potions, at least when I knew them. I wouldn’t necessarily call them nice, and I have no idea what you mean by Harry Potter, but they never tried to trick me but that could be because they knew my great aunt Frieda.” Peter missed her, she had been human and died when he was still a young boy but she had left him her collection of books and also her contacts to get more. Not that he had reached out to anyone for several years but her name had been a great help to counteract his age. Young werewolves weren’t known for being bookworms after all. The stereotype of wild youths howling at the moon no matter the phase was strong and he had gotten several responses that he should come back when he was older and could be taken seriously. Mentioning Frieda had helped, and some had even taken a liking to him after some time. The keeper of the coven had been one of them.

“Would you be comfortable telling them about your situation? I’m guessing witches know about the whole werewolf thing?”

“I think it would be okay if Lady B is still around. But I would need something to trade to them. I guess money would work but I don’t think I have enough,” he got rudely interrupted by Stiles who gave up a shout and then promptly got up and ran upstairs, leaving his chair toppled over. Peter stared after him, “what just happened?”

“Stiles realized something that could help I think. Probably ran to get it. Maybe the bag he found?” The sheriff sounded amused as he got up and straightened the chair.

“Mountain ash is not that valuable, well absolutely useful but it’s not hard to find even if it’s probably a bit work to get it into a useful form. I’m sure witches know all about that though.” He really should have thought of them when he started to search for werewolf information, but it was usually Lady B who contacted him when she got her hands on something she thought he would like, not the other way around.

“Well, we’ll see when he gets back. Do you have a full name for this Lady B? I can look her up to see if she is still around.”

“Beatrice Simmons, the coven was located somewhere outside of a little town called Seahaven. I never went there, we usually ended up meeting in San Francisco but they shouldn’t have moved if they are still active. Something about a magic source in the woods I think.”

Stilinski questioned him some more about both Lady B and the rest of the coven. He couldn’t tell much. Lady B had been his best contact, she definitely liked him, but he hadn’t actually met anyone else. And he seriously doubted the sheriff would have any use of their favorite little café or how Lady B always drank her coffee with an atrocious amount of sugar. Or that she had found him a book with his great aunt's favorite fairy tales that she used to tell him when he was young. The one they had owned had been chewed to pieces when Talia had fallen asleep while reading to an overly tired and cranky Laura when she was a toddler. Peter never told anyone how he had gotten over a new copy. He hoped it had been stored away at the vault, but wouldn’t be surprised if it had gotten handed down to one of the kids. He hadn’t gotten to keep the first one after all.

They got interrupted by a whop of joy and then Stiles came thundering down the stairs, sounding like it was a smaller miracle that he didn’t fall and break something.

“I found it! Dad, is this legit?” Stiles shoved a piece of paper at his dad, slightly out of breath.

The sheriff squinted a bit at the paper before answering. “It definitely seems real. To be fair, I have only seen examples of these during my training. You found it in the vault?”

“Yeah! And there were loads of them. What is it?”

“A bearer bond, commonly used for money laundry or tax evasion, not something I expected of the Hales.”

“I highly doubt Talia did anything like that. She was a stickler for the rules… At least she used to be.” But then again, she did take his memories, so what did he know?

“But how does it work? Does Peter need to prove that he is a Hale to get the money?”

“No, the thing about bearer bonds is that it is the possession that counts, no identification necessary. Well, he needs ID to get a bank account, because I highly doubt he wants the money in cash. How many of these were there?”

“Well, there were at least 4 stacks about jay high, but there could be more behind them. It should be worth millions. Peter, you should be able to pay whatever they ask for, and probably get an ID and whatever else you want too!”

Peter took the slightly crumpled paper from the sheriff with trembling hands. It looked official, and the amount of a thousand dollars was clearly written. Why had Talia left him with these? He knew he used to be worth millions, well, at least as soon as he turned twenty-one, but he didn’t think he would have access to that before sorting out his identity and getting in touch with Laura. Had they transferred his part of their savings into the bonds? Why would they do that?

“I… why would they… I don’t understand?” He hated that he sounded so insecure, and really, he shouldn’t be surprised that his family had made sure to provide for him, but after the last few days were everything knew he learned had been gut-wrenching he just didn’t know how to handle something good.

~ ~ ~

Noah didn’t know what to feel. Frankly, he was relieved that Peter seemed to have a fortune available without needing to sort out his identity first. He and Stiles did have savings, he had worked hard to get that extra padding back after all the hospital bills had been paid after Claudia, but they didn’t have the funds to solve all of Peter’s problems. And they would probably need to do it illegally no matter how it went against everything he believed in. Peter’s situation just didn’t fit into the legal system. So the money was good, even if he didn’t like the implications of them. But the Hales had lived as supernatural beings, they probably knew that they couldn’t always count on the law to protect them. Hell, they did die because of hate, so they weren’t wrong.

He was also a bit conflicted about telling Peter where the money had come from. He probably did know that his parents had died, he hadn’t asked about them so he probably assumed that they had perished with the rest of his family, so Noah didn’t especially want to tell him that they had died years before that. A freak accident according to the news, but probably something more nefarious if they had been werewolves too. And he still hadn’t said anything about the girl. Damn, the poor boy, he really hoped that discovery would wait. He would feel even more guilty for running away when he learned about her.

He watched as Stiles comforted Peter best as he could, rambling on different theories on why the Hales had left him the money, overall painting quite the rosy picture where the truth probably was because of guilt. He liked how the two boys interacted, he especially liked that Stiles had found a new friend that wasn’t Scott. Not that Scott wasn’t great, he loved the kid, but he didn’t like that he was the only friend Stiles brought home. He knew Scott had other kids over, but Stiles never did. Not since Claudia, and Noah felt like a failure as a father for not helping Stiles coping with his grief in a better way than to shield himself from new people. And obsess over making sure that the few people he already had would stay healthy. Maybe Peter was safe because he was a werewolf with probably all kinds of perks health wise? As long as nobody shot him or burned him to death.

Well, he had a new lead to help now at least. Beatrice Simmons, it shouldn’t be too hard to track her down. He hoped she was still around, it would be a relief to have another grown-up to discuss things with, especially somebody who already knew about all this supernatural stuff. It didn’t feel right to question Peter, and he didn’t think it was ethical to ask someone how to best apprehend them in case they snapped. Especially not a minor. So a grown-up would be nice.

“Well, I think we have learned enough for today, how about we clear the table and then watch a movie?” He, probably rudely, interrupted his son to get things moving again. He wanted the boys safe in front of the TV so they could try being normal for at least a couple of hours. Given the look of gratification his son gave him as they cleared everything away, he had not overstepped. He wondered if he was a good or a bad father for wanting to see his son cuddle with someone, but they had been so damn cute the other day that he didn’t care. Maybe he could sneak a photo of them if it happened again, God knew he had too few photos of his son truly happy. It was probably worth breaking a few laws just for that. Well, maybe not, but he would do it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/), come say hi.
> 
> Comment's make my day, so if you have time please tell me what you think.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! No more three-week hiatus for me, I'm even a day early. This chapter was way easier to write than the last one, maybe because life has been reasonably good, probably. 
> 
> Unfortunately for you, I will visit my dad for the next few days so there may be a bit delay for the next update. Hopefully not, but maybe. 
> 
> Anyhow, this chapter is mostly fluff, some self-discovery and someday I will get on with the plot, but it's not this day.

Peter had a hard time settling in. Stiles had started the first of the Lord of the Rings movies, and usually, Peter would have adored it. The film was beautiful, it actually felt like a good representation for the books, not that he could be certain he had only read them once when he was thirteen, but he couldn’t concentrate. He felt so many conflicted feelings, mostly about Talia, he didn’t even let himself think about the rest of his pack, but he couldn’t ignore what he felt for his alpha. She had betrayed him, she had taken his memories of his child but she had also saved his things. She had made sure that he would have funds if he came back even if he didn’t want to meet them. She had written to him. Like she had missed him. Like maybe she had regretted what she had done. And Peter ached to actually talk to her, but she had died so that was not possible anymore. And instead of going through what she had left him to try and find some answers he sat and watched a movie. He did it mostly because he had scared Stiles earlier, and Stiles deserved better than that.

Not that his presence helped at the moment. They were sitting in the two opposite corners of the couch, with ample space between them and Peter hated it. He should have sat down closer to the middle from the beginning, but he hadn’t thought about it and now he didn’t feel like he could move closer. Stiles had chosen to sit far away from him. And he smelled nervous and his heart beat a bit faster than it usually did and Peter didn’t know why. He didn’t smell scared, but maybe he would if Peter got closer? He hadn’t hesitated to touch him before in Peter’s room, but maybe he had had time enough to think about the day now and thought that Peter’s slip up earlier meant that he was losing control enough to actually hurt someone.

And he kept biting at the string to his hoodie, drawing attention to his mouth and gods be damn Peter didn’t need to focus on Stiles’ mouth. Not when Stiles was keeping his distance and not when Peter had way more important things to focus on. Like the movie where Bilbo had just disappeared from his party. Ugh, why had he agreed to such a long movie? And why was Stiles so far away? And now he some kind of metallic contraption in his hands, where had that came from? Stiles didn’t even seem to realize that he was doing something with his hands, while still biting on the stupid lace. Peter was sure that he normally would have no problem ignoring the sounds, but he was hyper aware of everything Stiles did at the moment, even if he did do his best to not look at the other boy. He tried to focus on the movie again. He must have missed something because now Frodo had the ring and was going somewhere? Yes, he kind of remembered that, he was going to the elves. Sure.

Click. Click. Clickclickclick. Clack.

There was a brief blessed moment of silence and then it started up again.

Click…

By the moon! Peter looked helplessly at the sheriff searching for some support in making Stiles stop. He had no luck, the man, who was sitting in one of the armchairs seemingly deep into the movie, radiated amusement that had no anchor to the film so Peter knew it was something to do with either him or Stiles. Or maybe both? No, it had to be how Peter was reacting to Stiles’ fidgeting. The sheriff had to be used to it, Stiles did seem to have trouble being still. But the gods be damned noise!

Click, click…

The sheriff must have sensed him staring because he looked over and then, glanced at his son smiled and then looked back and just raised one eyebrow. Like a challenge. Like, yeah my son is a spastic noisemaker, what are you going to do about it?

And Peter, Peter’s had it. If Stiles needed to do something with his hands he could well enough do something to Peter. He looked defiantly at the sheriff before he unceremoniously scooted over and laid down with his head in Stiles’ lap. He had been in this position the last time they watched a movie and Stiles had played with his hair, he wanted that again. That had been awesome, that had been relaxing, that had been fucking silent.

Stiles froze and let out a small squawk and looked down on him with his mouth open, actually letting go if the string too. Peter slowly took the offending metal bits from Stiles and then guided one of his hands to his head. And something softened in Stiles' eyes and he obediently started to draw his fingers through the hair and went back to watch the movie. Peter couldn’t decipher Stiles’ scent, it was a concoction of many things but he didn’t smell afraid, and he didn’t smell anxious either. Still nervous, but not more so than before. Peter sighed contently and sent a quick defiant look towards the sheriff as he put what was apparently some sort of metal puzzle on the table. There, he did something about it. Happy?

And the sheriff had the audacity to look pleased. He smiled so happily at Peter that he felt a bit like he had been played. But there was no way Stilinski had wanted Peter to get closer to his son, right? That was not something that happened. Parents didn’t behave like that. The man winked at him and then got back to the movie, looking pleased as punch. Peter decided that he didn’t even want to know what he was thinking, but clearly being in Stiles lap was a good thing and he could sign off on that.

~ ~ ~

Noah was delighted over the development. He had been dismayed when he had seen that the two boys sat as far away from each other as they could get on the same couch and both clearly unhappy with it. Well, at least Stiles had been unhappy, fidgeting more than usual and while stubbornly looking at the movie most of his focus had been on Peter. He could guess that it had been Stiles’ insecurities that had led him to sit so far away and that he now hated that he had no easy way of moving closer. Noah had been tempted to ask Peter to scoot over to claim a seat in the couch too but declined. He didn’t want to make either of the boys do something they were not comfortable with, even if both would probably be happier with some physical contact. He took an armchair instead. It was easier to keep an eye on things that way too.

Sufficient to say, he had been laughing a bit inside when his son finally got out one of his metal puzzles just to have something to occupy his hands with. It seemed to help as he got more into the movie after that but it made the situation for Peter way worse. Noah couldn’t hear the clicking, but clearly, Peter could and Noah remembered how stupidly irritating it had been before Stiles had gotten good enough to be quiet with his fidgeting. And if Noah let some of that amusement show when he met Peter’s desperate eyes, that was just between him and his conscience. He felt like he deserved some kind of reward when Peter ended up in Stiles lap, both boys a lot more at ease touching than apart.

He made it through half the movie before going to the kitchen to fetch a beer and his phone. He was sure he would be able to get a picture of the two boys without them noticing, and he wanted to send one off to Melissa. He would have to wait until he got hold of Simmons to sort out Peter’s backstory, but that would be handled soon. And he should probably make sure she didn’t say anything to Scott before Stiles did too. It was not okay to out someone after all, but since Stiles hadn’t actually said anything to Noah yet… Right, maybe he should wait with sending it off to Melissa too. He just wanted some bragging rights damn it. And his little boy possibly falling in love with someone he had probably saved the life off, that was absolutely something he wanted to brag about.

He got his photo, and Peter didn’t notice at all but Stiles scowled at him. Noah wasn’t sure if he was displeased by the photo or the beer though, so he decided to ignore it. Stiles wasn’t inclined to say anything at the moment, after all, he did have a werewolf in his lap. And he was way too happy about that to disturb the peace to hassle his dad. And Noah took shameless advantage of that.

~ ~ ~

Man, watching movies with Peter was awesome. At least when he got to play with his hair. It had been kind of awful before Peter had laid down in his lap and Stiles had had to use all his focus to keep his eyes on the movie and not on Peter. So maybe he had been a bit louder with his puzzle than usual, he wasn’t sure. Maybe it was just that Peter had such freakishly good hearing. It didn’t matter, now he had soft hair to keep his hands occupied instead, and it was even better than the last time. Because this one was on Peter. He wanted Stiles to play with his hair. He had practically demanded it, like a puppy wanting scratches. Not that he would say that out loud, he did want to get to do it again after all. And he was slightly panicked about that. Because there were no denying it anymore. Stiles liked Peter, _liked_ him. Fuck.

And that was the small drawback with having Peter in his lap. He was way too close to his dick for comfort, and Stiles did have to think some very unsexy thoughts to keep his body in control because he could feel the breath of Peter through his jeans and he just wanted to watch him being content resting on Stiles’ thighs. He refrained, because actually seeing Peter in his lap was a bit more than he could handle, not when just feeling him there felt so good. He kept his eyes locked on the TV instead, not that he had any idea what the movie was doing at the moment. The soft strands of Peter’s hair having all his attention. It had started a bit sticky from the product the hairdresser had used but that was all gone by now. Stiles was sure Peter’s hair was softer than his was. Well, probably. It had been years since Stiles had let it get long enough to actually be felt. He had always thought about his hair as something annoying, and a nervous habit of tugging at it had been helped by just keeping it shaved. Maybe he should grow it out. He would not say no to have Peter playing with his hair after all, because Peter seemed to think the experience was stupendous.

He reacted when his dad got back mostly because he stayed standing for way too long, it was weird enough that he had to see what was going on. He scowled a bit at the beer but gathered that it at least wasn’t whiskey, or chips, so he let it slide. The phone though. They would have words about the phone later. Taking sneaky pictures of his only son thinking he wouldn’t notice. Ha! Stiles notices everything, always. It’s his superpower, his ability to notice things. As long as it wasn’t the movie they were watching, he had no idea what was going on there. But he had seen it countless times before so he would have no problem talking about it later anyway. So Peter would never know how utterly distracting he was. That would be embarrassing.

At least he now knew that he was definitely not straight. So there was that. He refused to be freaked out by that, he was a modern guy, being straight had never defined him. He didn’t know what he was instead though, and he kind of wanted to get his phone to start to google sexual orientations. He was kind of astonished that he had never done it before but he would blame that on the perfection that was Lydia, why search for alternatives when he had already found the pinnacle of humanity in her? So being attracted to Peter was kind of surprising. He tried to remember if he had ever been attracted to somebody else, but couldn’t.

Did you count as bisexual if you only ever wanted two people? Well, in the strictest sense of the word it definitely fit, but it seemed too inclusive. He’d always liked girls after all, and only ever like Peter as a guy. Could you be straightish? Well, he thought he always had liked girls, maybe it was more correct to say that he had always liked Lydia? But other girls were also aesthetically pleasing. He just didn’t think about them sexually. Well, guys could be kind of beautiful too, maybe? Scott was a good looking guy, and Danny and Jackson were ridiculously handsome but he had never wanted any of them at all.

A displeased sound from Peter made Stiles realize he had been still for probably quite some time, and quickly started to cradle his finger through Peter’s hair again. He was beginning to suspect that Peter was a bit of a diva, he seemed to feel best when he was the center of attention. He had been absolutely brilliant when they were out shopping and all the clerics had fawned over him. Which kind of made it even more amazing that he wanted Stiles’ attention most of all. Or was it just that he needed Stiles because he knew about everything? Would he behave the same way if it had been somebody else that had found him in the woods? Stiles felt a stab of jealousy, no, he refused to believe that. Peter liked him. He even liked him rambling, there was no way he just tolerated Stiles because of circumstances. Not when he had actively sought out his touch. 

A small insecure part of his brain tried to say that it was only because he was a werewolf, they were probably very tactile if they were anything like wolves at all, but he resolutely stomped on that. Peter liked him. Probably only as a friend, but he did like him. And Stiles would be happy with that. There was no way he would try for something more at this point anyway. What kind of insensitive asshole would look at a traumatized guy and think, yes, sex is what he needs? Not Stiles, no, he was better than that. But Peter did need a massive amount of cuddles, and that Stiles could provide. Strictly platonic cuddles. Strictly platonic cuddles that had made Stiles question his sexuality. Damn, he really needed to talk to Scott.

~ ~ ~

Peter had trouble sleeping. It was late, they had ended up watching a couple of episodes of some sitcom that Stiles liked after the movie, so it was after midnight before they got to bed. Well, the sheriff had made his excuses after the movie had ended, but he had an early shift the following day so he needed his sleep. Peter had liked being in Stiles’ lap too much to want to go to bed so they had stayed some more. Not that he could say anything about the show they had watched. It had been something silly, and he had relished Stiles’ laughter but he felt like he had made enough of an effort to focus on something that was not Stiles for the day.

And now he was alone in his bed. He hated it. He could still feel the ghost of Stiles hand against his head and he wanted more. He wanted to burrow his nose into Stiles’ neck to just breathe in his raw scent. But he couldn’t ask for that. And Stiles hadn’t even gone to bed. Peter could hear him tapping away at his computer at irregular intervals, so he didn’t want to intrude. He tried to focus his hearing on the sheriff instead. The slow beat of his heart and soft snoring was a lot more calming than Stiles’ rabbit fast one. But he still always got back to Stiles. He couldn’t help it. He had never felt this kind of connection to anyone not pack before. He had always been kind of lonely. Absolutely the center of attention in school, but he had only surface friends. He didn’t trust them. They were humans who didn’t know about the supernatural, how could he possibly trust them enough to actually let them get to know him for real? Only his pack had known him, and they had always thought him odd. Well, not great-aunt Frieda, but she had been kind of odd too. She had traveled so far, and seen so much and that in a time where women were supposed to stay home and take care of the kids. But she had gotten away with it because she was human. And humans didn’t need the pack like wolves did.

He wondered if it was easier being human. Would this had even happened if he had not been a were? Or would he had woken up the next day and then went home to try and sort things out with his sister, kind of like he had planned to do eventually. He would be dead now in that case. Probably. Burned in the fire with his family. Or would he have traveled like he always wanted? Would he have been somewhere out there searching for myths and legends? He would probably never have met Stiles though, not in any way where they could actually get to know each other. Hell, he should be double the age of Stiles, if he had not taken a shortcut. That would be creepy for sure. Was meeting Stiles worth the whole time travel thing? Maybe. Absolutely if he could just be sure that him staying in his time would not have changed things for the better. But he couldn’t really believe that. At the very least he should have been there for his kid. Somehow. Talia wouldn’t have kept it from him indefinitely, right? She would have found some way to resolve whatever crisis Peter had caused and then told him, right? He didn’t particularly want a kid, but he didn’t want a kid of his feeling like her dad hadn’t wanted him even less. He knew all too well how that felt.

Damn, his parents must have been so disappointed in him when they learned. Or maybe they just felt like it was to be expected. Of course, Peter had managed to knock a girl up and then ran from his responsibilities. Fuck, he wouldn’t have run if he had known he was going to be a dad. He would have wanted to, but damn it, he would have stayed. He would probably not have married this Corinne person, he couldn’t see himself have fallen so deeply for her in just the few months he had missing memories from. And he hadn’t felt like he was missing that kind of connection either. But he would have supported her, sold off part of his collection if Talia wouldn’t allow him access to his funds. Maybe gotten a job. He was good at finding stuff so he could have done that for others instead of for himself. It would have worked out. If he had just known about it.

He looked towards the desk with all the things Talia had left him. Hopefully, there would be some answers to why there. He was itching to just start reading but he had promised Stiles that he would wait. He didn’t want to break his promises to Stiles. Not when he asked for so little and gave so much. He sighed, he really should try and get some sleep. The day had been exhausting and he would have even worse control if he didn’t sleep too on top of everything else. He really needed to find some information about going omega, or call Laura. He missed Talia, even if he didn’t always agree, it was easier with an alpha to make the hard decisions. He just didn’t want Laura to be that alpha, he wanted his sister back. He wanted both his sisters back, and their husbands and kids and maybe even his mom and dad. Even if they had done fuck all for him, he still missed them. Maybe he should call Laura in the morning, surely she had grown up from being the brat she had been the last time he saw her? She must have. She would be a crappy alpha if she hadn’t.

The hole in his chest where his pack should be ached, but he willed it away. He pushed all thoughts on his family to the back and focused on Stiles’ typing. Not that there were much of that at the moment, instead there was the occasional clicking sound, so he was probably reading something on his computer. He wondered what. Maybe he was searching for facts on werewolves? Peter hoped so, maybe Stiles would have better luck. He had grown up with the technology, after all, he must be better at handling it. He fell asleep thinking about Stiles, the boy who somehow in just a few days had made himself the most important person in the world to Peter.

~ ~ ~

Stiles found that there were way too many choices when it came to sexual orientations. Which made sense, people were different after all and it was probably naïve to think that you could be gay or straight or both. Apparently, you could be neither too or leaning towards something but not committing to it fully. It was fascinating, but he didn’t really find anything that he thought he would be comfortable being.  Or, at least not something he would be comfortable coming out as. Maybe he should just stick to bisexual? Because he clearly liked both a girl and a boy. It was just that he only liked them. He supposed he could be considered demisexual, but it seemed to require a deep connection before attraction and Stiles couldn’t say that he had that with either Lydia or Peter. Sure, the potential was there, and it wasn’t just the looks of them that made them so alluring. He also felt like he shouldn’t fit under the asexual umbrella at all, wouldn’t that mean that he didn’t want sex? He definitely wanted sex, just only with two specific people. And fuck everything that made him feel like he suddenly was abnormal for not wanting to sleep with the first one to offer, how was that the norm? He had always thought that was just one of the stupid myths about male sexuality that was not true but guys upheld because society said that was how guys were like. Well, maybe people didn’t want to sleep with anyone that was willing, but the way they defined demisexuality, like it was somewhat special to actually need a connection to want sex, was a bit jarring. He really should delve deeper, find some forums to try and find an actual person to ask questions to. But it was kind of scary, even being anonymous on the internet. What if there wasn’t anyone like him? What if his very quick fall for just two unique persons made him unfit to be labeled anything already established? Wasn’t it just better to call himself bisexual and be done with it? It was kind of discouraging to not find anything he could identify with at a quick search. And it was probably better to stop searching than going even longer without finding somewhere to fit in.

He really, really needed to talk to Scott. At least he would be supportive, even if he would have even less of a clue than Stiles. Scott had his back, always. But he wanted to talk to him, not text him, and he didn’t want Peter to hear him freak out over his sexuality. That would be highly embarrassing.  And he couldn’t really ask Peter to leave either. That was not fair to him. He didn’t have anywhere else to go. And he was traumatized and missed his family and Stiles hated that he had gone to sleep alone. But how could he possibly offer to sleep with him without coming off as creepy? Or opportunistic and Peter was a werewolf, he could probably smell all sort of things on Stiles. Fuck, he had probably heard him get off this morning. He didn’t need to know that. Well, he didn’t _know_ , but it was very probable. He hoped he had forgotten about it the next morning because he really didn’t think it would be a good idea to abstain from getting off when he had just accepted that he was attracted to Peter. Maybe he could play music at the same time? Something loud? But he would probably forget about it because music was not part of his morning routine. And if he put a post-it on the bathroom door Peter would see it and wonder why the hell Stiles needed to remember music before going to shower.

God damn it, werewolf senses were very inconvenient. Super cool, but highly invasive. How the hell had the Hales managed to live together as many as they had been? Maybe they had extra thick walls or something. Or were just exhibitionists. Kinky werewolves? That seemed like a porno made to happen. It probably already had. Probably not with real werewolves, that would be irresponsible, but humans had a fucked up imagination so playing dress-up and having sex was probably on the tamer side of the kinky porn industry. Did werewolves behave like wolves? If the Hales were a typical pack they at least lived in large families. But only the Alpha pair had pups in wolf packs, and both Peter’s sisters had had children. And his cousin or something too. So there was one difference. But they had still lived together. And if most of them had been werewolves… They were either way less prude than the usual human or had very good soundproofing. 

Fuck, it had to be horrible going through puberty as a werewolf. Especially if they had as good of a sense of smell as wolves. There had been a period where Stiles had gotten aroused for the smallest things, thank god that had mostly passed, but even imagining that someone would have smelled it on him made him cringe. His dad walking in on him masturbating had been embarrassing enough, and had at least taught him to always lock the door, but if his dad would have had the ability to smell if he was horny? That would have been horrible.

Damn it, and Stiles was attracted to Peter! Did Peter already know that? He had been in Stiles fucking lap when he had finally accepted it for real. Could Peter smell that? How the hell would he be able to offer Peter cuddles if Peter knew he was attracted to him? What if he felt pressured to consent just to make Stiles happy? Sure, it was his dad who was the ultimate power in the house, but how could Peter trust that his dad would never kick him out just because he didn’t like his son back? Because his dad would never do that, and Stiles would never do that either, but Peter didn’t know them. And Stiles couldn’t very well just tell Peter that he didn’t have to do anything just because Stiles liked him, because if he hadn’t already figured Stiles out then he would know anyway. He should really ask a hell of a lot more questions about how Peter’s senses worked. And maybe if there was some way of canceling them out. Maybe the magic dust could help. There had to be some information on that online. And finding super secret supernatural secret was way less scary than getting help to figure out his sexuality so he could do that. Magic was safe, and hopefully the answer for a lot of his problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, disclaimer, I'm a straight cis woman, so I don't really have personal experiences to draw from here. I hope I haven't offended anyone, Stiles is still figuring his shit out. But well, he is kind of good at ignoring things he doesn't want to deal with so don't expect answers too soon. 
> 
> Please comment if you liked this, it keeps me writing on the bad days. 
> 
> I have a [tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/), occasionally I'm even active.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this update got a bit later than I had hoped. I blame getting ill. Stupid cold with a persistent cough has had me sleeping less than 4 hours at a time. It's really hard being creative when sleep-deprived. Also, my throat hurts. But enough whining, focus on the good stuff. Like update! 
> 
> Thank you all so much for your comments and kudos, I love all of them.

Noah noticed that Stiles light was on when he made his way past his room. He stopped and briefly listened at the door before he carefully opened it to find his son sleeping sitting up collapsed over his desk, face mashed down on his keyboard. He felt a rush of affection as he sighed, Stiles must have gotten caught up in some sort of research when he should have gone to sleep. It happened more often when Noah went to bed before his son, no matter how many times he had berated him for it. He debated with himself, should he get his son to the bed or let him sleep like this? It was only five am, so he should get at least four hours more if he pushed back the alarm some. Yes, it would probably be better to get him to bed, even if it woke him up.

He quietly pulled back the covers on the bed and then gently coaxed Stiles up in a sitting position. It made the computer screen light up, filled with tabs on whatever Stiles had been researching. A brief glance on the window opened told Noah that it was something werewolf related, was that a painting of a dissection? Jesus. He couldn’t say that he was surprised, but right before bed? He just wished his son had enough self-preservation to actually go to bed before he fell asleep of exhaustion. At least the chair had wheels so he could just push his son towards the bed without having to lift him up. This first part was fairly easy, he managed without Stiles even making a noise. It was getting him from the chair into the bed that was tricky. Stiles had gotten too big to just be lifted without effort. Noah looked at him with a frown, he should probably try and get the hoodie off too, but that would definitely wake him. At least his son had changed out off his jeans to his sleep pants, small mercies there.

He took a deep breath and then ever so gently pulled his son up on his feet and then shuffled him over to the bed.

“Gnnn… Strawberries.”

Noah side-eyed Stiles trying to figure out if he was waking up or just dreaming and then Stiles discovered his pillow and burrowed into that, sound asleep. Well, that was a success. He contemplated the hoodie again and then decided to leave it. He pulled the covers over his son, kissed the back of his head and then turned to leave. He did adjust the alarm on his son’s bedside table first, he knew he hated when his morning routine was disrupted but it was better that he got one extra hour of sleep than that he was cranky the whole day. It wasn’t like he had somewhere to be either. He closed down the laptop on his way out and turned off the light. It felt good taking care of his son like this, even if he would prefer if he didn’t have to. But he would lie to himself if he didn’t admit that he liked that his son still needed him, there were so many things his son had just taken over when Noah had been lacking that he relished these small things he still got to do. He knew it was his fault that Stiles did most of the cooking, but they had talked about it and Stiles had been adamant that he wanted to take that responsibility. Noah was weak for accepting that, but he also didn’t really have the energy to argue about it. He was also not as good of a cook as Stiles was. But it soothed something inside him when he got to tuck his son to bed. Made him feel like he wasn’t a bad father after all.

He would still scold his son for falling asleep on his computer when he got back from work, and maybe for researching gruesome things before falling asleep too. And maybe tease him a bit for how he could sleep through almost anything.

~ ~ ~

Peter didn’t sleep well this night either. He dreamed of a small baby girl who accused him of leaving her, of abandoning her. He couldn’t tell what she looked like, except for her dark scowling eyes that seemed to bore right into his core. It was unnerving. So Peter was kind of grateful when he woke up by the sheriff making his way through the house for work. Even if he probably had only slept for a few hours. He didn’t actually know what time it was, the Stilinskis had as far as Peter could tell only one clock and it was in the kitchen, but it was still dark outside so it had to be early.

This time he didn’t need to decide what to do. As soon as he realized he was actually awake he was out of the bed and at the desk to go through the papers Talia left him. He had kept his promise to Stiles, he had left them alone for the night so he was now in his full right to actually learn things. And he would probably keep control, the few hours of sleep he had managed kept the exhaustion at bay and he had probably been overly cautious when he had been worried the night before anyway. He had always had excellent control after all. The few slip-ups he had had was only due to being new without a pack. And they had been minor, not the mindless feral beast the elders had always warned them about. So clearly Peter was made out of stronger stuff and could handle being alone for a while. And Stiles was still in the house, Peter would never do anything to put him in harm’s way.

He quickly found the binder he had started within the vault. He wanted more information on his daughter, and as it had contained the first piece of evidence of her in the first place it was the place to start. To begin with the actual first letter. He had only gotten a few sentences the day before after all.

It didn’t contain much. Just that the birth had been hard, the girl was healthy and Talia was sure Peter would love her. She hardly said anything about Corinne, and Peter got a distinct feeling that Talia hadn’t liked her. He couldn’t tell why, it just seemed to lack a bit of empathy for a girl who just had given birth and almost died in the process. Kind of like Talia had been disappointed that she had actually survived? No, that couldn’t be right, his sister had always firmly believed that just because they were wolves they didn’t need to kill. But maybe that was the point? If the girl had died in childbirth then nobody would need to get their hands dirty. But why did Talia want her dead in the first place? Because of Peter? Or was Corinne a threat to the pack? He cursed that he had no memories of the girl, he really needed more information.

The following paper was a copy of the birth certificate. It was odd, it listed the mother as unknown, but Peter as the father. How had Talia managed that? It seemed really fishy, and had to mean that the birth had not been at the hospital. Which explained why it had been so difficult probably. Hopefully, they had had some actually trained people there at least. Peter was really starting to feel for the poor mother. She was probably a horrible person, she had to be as Talia wouldn’t want her dead otherwise, but still, giving birth with the help of somebody who loathed them had to be rough. And the missing name meant that Peter still didn’t have a last name, so he doubted he could find her. Damn.

He did get a name for the child tough.

Malia.

Malia Emmeline Hale.

Really? Talia didn’t have a better imagination than that? Well, maybe the names weren’t pronounced the same, but still. Gods be damned, at least she could have named her something that reminded them of Peter. Was that too much to ask? Emmeline wasn’t much better, but at least that one was a family name. Malia was new. No Hale had been named that before as far as Peter knew. He didn’t like it at all. Maybe it was Corinne who wanted that name, but since she had agreed to not be on the birth certificate Peter highly doubted that she had had any influence at all. He would have to look it up later, maybe it means something special.

Peter skimmed the rest of the binder, it was mostly letters from Talia except for some school records, and most importantly adoption papers. At least the girl had stayed with family, but Peter kind of resented that Talia had first stolen all memories of her from Peter and then stolen the actual kid too. If Talia wanted another kid why did she have to erase her from Peter? He would probably been thankful if she had just offered that as an option when he first talked to her. He couldn’t imagine that he would have reacted to that in a way that required Talia to take is memories. Well, he would probably have preferred an abortion in the first place, but that would really not been his call, and Corinne clearly had been against it since she went through with the birth. So given no abortion, letting Talia take care of the kid would have been a good solution. Since Corinne didn’t want to keep her. Would she have kept her if Peter had not been gone? Suddenly Peter felt like he was drenched in ice.

 Malia was adopted by his sister.

Everyone in the Hale family except for Laura and Derek died in the fire.

Fuck.

~ ~ ~

The station was quiet when Noah got there. He kind of liked the morning shift, it usually gave him the time to get some paperwork done before anything that needed his input happened and it also gave him time to get into the right headspace for work. Night shifts were almost always intense from the moment he got to work, no time to stop thinking like a father and start thinking like a cop at all. So morning shifts were better. And they gave him more time with his kid. He liked that. It also gave him the opportunity for donuts for breakfast. He still had to be sneaky about it, his deputies were traitorous snitches the bunch of them, but there was not enough manpower in the early morning to get him caught. Unfortunately, he couldn’t really schedule all that many early shifts. He was still the best investigator they had so it would be stupid to keep him locked to the early shifts. So he indulged himself a few times a month but not more than that.

“Your son allowing you sugar again?” Noah froze at the teasing tone from Tara, damn, busted. “Do tell sheriff, why the change of heart? Is it the new boy he has been seen with? I heard he’s really handsome, has Stiles finally gotten over that redhead he has been so hung up upon the last few years?” 

“Deputy Graeme, I didn’t see you there. What do you want for not letting this get back to my son?” He didn’t address the Peter shaped question there, he didn’t want to lie to his deputies, and he definitely didn’t want to out Stiles before he had even had a conversation with him about it. Better to focus on the illicit donut.

Tara laughed, “well, you could tell me about the boy. Is it true, does Stiles really have a boyfriend? I heard he has been seen shopping. Somewhere else than Target. Only love could possibly get him to do that.”

“Well, that's just slander. Stiles gets most of his clothes online after all. And no, he does not have a boyfriend. As far as I know, he’s just friends with the kid.”

“Well damn. I will lose money on that. But do spill, who’s the boy?”

“His name’s Peter.” Noah paused for a second, crap, Peter hadn’t decided on a name yet, well, he would just have to cope. “Stiles found him in the woods the other day and kind of adopted him. I’m trying to figure out how to help him but I don’t know enough for anything official yet.”

“Shit, he’s why you left Friday? Poor kid. What the hell was Stiles doing out so late anyway?”

“Exercising.” Noah rolled his eyes, he still was a bit angry about that. “Apparently he read somewhere that it would help with insomnia and thought that the preserve was the perfect place to go running at night. Frankly, I’m relieved that he stumbled across Peter and not something worse.”

“Right, the boy staying with you lot then? Anything I can do to help?”

“Well, do you think you could find a number for me? A Beatrice Simmons, I think she lives outside of Seahaven.”

“Hmpf, a simple google search could give you that. You’re just lazy. But sure, I’ll look it up.”

“Thank you, and you forget all about the donut okay?”

Tara just laughed at him when she walked away. Hopefully, she wouldn’t volunteer the information at least, and Stiles wouldn’t start working there for a week. She would have forgotten about it until then. Hopefully.

~ ~ ~

Stiles woke up with the image of a very angry Lydia still stuck in his brain as he desperately battled with the alarm to get it silent. She had been furious about him liking somebody else and for a hot second he had believed that she would finally return his feelings just to be shot down with that she just wanted his devotion, not him. Why did he have to dream about Lydia? And why couldn’t it have been a nice dream? He used to dream nice, kind of unrealistic dreams about her liking him and wanting him. Why did he have to dream about her angry? She was never angry. She stood above such petty feelings like anger. She ruled the school with scathing contempt, she didn’t need to be angry. Well, she probably got angry plenty of times but she didn’t show it. Not in the normal way at least. Maybe she was angry when she was extra icy? And anyway, Lydia had no place getting angry at him for liking somebody else too! She didn’t even acknowledge that he existed, she had no say in his feelings.

He laid still staring up at the roof. Wait, how did he get into bed? The last thing he remembered was some kind of horrifying stories about dissecting werewolves. Apparently, it had to be done while the werewolf was still alive, there was nothing to distinguish a dead werewolf from a human. Probably some sort of defense mechanism for the supernatural world. Maybe he should be thankful for dreams of angry Lydia, he could have dreamt of somebody torturing Peter in the name of science. Or maybe just for fun. Some forums seemed to be full with so-called hunters who killed supernatural beings for sport. But maybe that had been an actual forum for the game they were all referencing. He had never heard of the game before, and it seemed to have shit graphics and was crazy expensive so he highly doubted that, but still. One could hope. He would have to dig deeper into that, maybe he could get Peter to fund a copy? He would have to ask.

He looked over at the alarm and cursed, how could it already be after nine? He always got up at eight, well, almost always, he could stay in bed to long after lunch if he let himself but then he'd ruin the whole day and often the day after too. Well shit. He grumpily got out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom for his normal routine. He was halfway through getting off when he remembered Peter, and instead of being turned off like a normal person he came with a gasp and then promptly felt deep shame. God, he hoped Peter was still asleep. He hadn’t been the day before, and he hadn’t said anything then but still. And why was the thought of Peter listening in so damn arousing? He didn’t want Peter to listen. Well, okay, if they actually were together that could probably be fun, but as it stood? No thank you. He abso-fucking-lutely wanted his privacy. He then spent probably over ten minutes getting thoroughly scrubbed down, desperately ignoring any thoughts of Peter hearing everything he did. Damn, this day would be harder than he had anticipated.

He was relieved when he found no trace of Peter downstairs. Maybe he was still asleep after all. He put on some music thinking that the sound would wake the werewolf up and lure him downstairs. He quickly swallowed his medicine and started on breakfast. He made even more than he would have done if his dad was still home, he wasn’t sure but some of the stuff he stumbled over the last night made him suspect that Peter wasn’t eating nearly enough. He hadn’t complained about it, so he was probably not starving, but not starving was not the same as being satisfied. He would have to talk to his dad about that too, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to say anything about it in front of Peter. It couldn’t be easy being dependent on strangers. Stiles would sure as hell not complain about anything if he had been in Peter’s situation. Okay, no, that was a lie. He would complain loud and clear about a lot of stuff, but not on anything that could come off as a complaint on the ones who were helping him.

He got into the zone as he cooked, and soon he had a mountain of eggs and bacon ready for consumption. He also got out some bread for toasting and started a pot of coffee for Peter. He was a bit surprised that there was no sign of Peter when he was done but figured he had probably been exhausted from the information overload the day before. He put the food in the oven to keep warm and then made his way upstairs again. He wasn’t sure if he should wake Peter up but he at least wanted to make sure that he was still there and hadn’t gone running off somewhere again. It wasn’t likely but he had to make sure anyway.

He stood outside the door for several minutes dividing over if he should knock or not. Did he want to wake Peter if he was still asleep? That seemed rude, and last time he woke Peter the boy had run away from him. He didn’t really want a repeat of that. But it would be even ruder to just open the door too. He could knock quietly? Yes, that was a compromise he could stand behind. He took a deep breath and then knocked softly three times.

“Peter?” He asked as he opened the door. The lamp on the desk was lit, emitting a soft light over the open binder at the center. The chair was drawn back from the desk and beside it was a pile of clothes that looked like they had been discarded in a hurry. The bed was empty and unmade with the covers hanging down the side. Stiles was starting to get a bit panicked, he couldn’t see Peter anywhere.

“Peter?” He tried again, taking half a step into the room. He scowled at the lamp, why was it on? If Peter had left why hadn’t he turned it off? Why hadn’t he left a note? Maybe there was something on the desk? He made is way there, careful not to step on the clothes on the floor and looked for something that could explain Peter absence. He couldn’t find a note from Peter but the open binder was answer enough.

It had the adoption papers for Malia.

Shit.

He really should have seen this coming, of course Peter’s daughter had to be Malia. And she was very much dead. And Peter had been alone when he found out and probably snapped. Where the hell had he gone though? Last time he had just busted out but the window was still closed and the door had been too. Stiles was getting a bit panicked, there was no way for him to know how long Peter had been missing, and anything could have happened to him. He should probably call his dad. Not that his dad could do much either, he couldn’t very well send out the deputies to look for Peter if he had turned wolfy and last time Peter had come back by himself. Did he really want to worry his dad too?

“Shit!” Aggravated Stiles kicked the chair and it rolled a couple of inches before getting caught in the clothes and tipped over.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a high pitched whine from under the bed.

“Peter! You didn’t run away!” Stiles is both kind of terrified of what he will find under the bed and ecstatic over Peter staying in the house. It had to mean that Peter felt safe there. The question now was if he felt safe with Stiles. His dad would probably scold him to the moon for what he was doing, but Stiles couldn’t just leave Peter there. Not when he was in distress, he just really, really hoped that he wouldn’t get attacked for getting close. He crouched down to look under the bed focusing on making sure to not make any sudden movements that could startle Peter.

“Peter, you in there buddy?” He couldn’t see shit. He could sort of see a denser dark mass but he couldn’t really identify it. It had to be Peter. He should probably have turned on the light before getting down on the floor. He felt like there should be creepy music playing or something, but he refused to give in to that feeling. This was Peter, he was his friend, not some unknown monster out to eat him. He really hoped Peter didn’t want to eat him. His dad would be so angry if Stiles ended up hurt because he was too reckless for his own good.

“You really should say something, this is starting to get a little bit freaky. I’m gonna get my phone out to get some light, so don’t freak out on me, okay?” He waited for a few moments to give Peter some time to answer but when he was still met with silence he stumbled after his phone and got the flashlight app going. He turned the light towards the mass but kept it close to the floor to not blind the other boy.

Except there was no other boy.

He was met with the golden eyes of a wolf that was so big that Stiles was simply astonished he had managed to get under the bed in the first place. Well shit.

~ ~ ~

The wolf had startled awake when the door opened. He tensed and prepared for being attacked but relaxed when he got the scent. There was no threat to him there, he contemplated abandoning his hiding place but refrained. It was better staying hidden. He would have preferred the woods, but he had changed too fast to actually leave the house. It had just been too much and everything was better as a wolf. He didn’t need to think so much and the hiding spot under the bed was sufficient. It was a bit cramped but that was kind of reassuring.

He could hear the boy calling for him, but he didn’t make a sound. Maybe he would give up and go away. It would be best to be left alone the wolf thought. He just wanted to hide from the world for a bit. To push away his losses and just let the feeling of the house seep into him. It was an overall happy house with an undercurrent of sadness. But the sadness was old and the boy and the man had drenched the house in their affection and love for each other. He liked it. He liked how they had included him in their care so effortlessly. So he felt safe under the bed.

He felt a little bit less safe when the boy cursed and the chair violently tipped over. He couldn’t help the whine emerging from his throat, mostly a reaction to the sharp scent of worry from the boy. That had not been his intention at all. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, pressing even closer into the wall. Maybe the boy hadn’t heard him. Would that be good or bad?

The boy did hear him and seemed relieved he was still in the house. That was good. It was less good that he probably would have to come out now. He didn’t want to. He especially didn’t want to change back. He didn’t have any responsibilities as a wolf, and he liked his corner. There was no seductive promise of information that cut deep in the corner. Just the scent of the house and a fair bit of dust. The dust was not a positive thing about the corner but he tolerated it for the security of two walls and a solid bed above him.

The boy was starting to smell anxious and it was making the wolf feel uneasy. He didn’t want to be the cause of trouble, he just wanted to be left alone. When the boy mentioned light he knew he was busted. He opened his eyes trying to prepare for the worst. He didn’t think the boy would hurt him, but it was hard to predict human reactions to the wolf. Scared humans were dangerous.

When he met the eyes of the boy he felt a first feather light tickle of a bond between them. It was spider web thin but it was there. Relief flooded his whole system. Maybe he could come out after all. He could leave his corner for pack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think this was a cliffhanger? I had first planned to stop after Stiles' part but that felt a bit cruel and also a bit done, so I gave you some extra wolf Peter. 
> 
> Please leave a comment if you liked it, they mean a lot. 
> 
> I have a [tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/), I even post stuff occasionally.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I will drop my self-enforced deadline of updates Mondays. Because I'm not very good at keeping it. I will try to get out one chapter a week at least, but as long as I have this stupid cough don't hold your breath. I think its getting better, but it's still terrible at night so sleeping is not something I get to do very much. Woe is me and all that jazz. 
> 
> Anyhow, update! I'm in a point in the fic where I kind of know what I want to happen like in 5 chapters or so, I just have to get there. But getting there is kind of hard. Also, I know so much backstory that probably won't even make it into this fic. Because there's nobody left alive to tell it. I should probably write it down somewhere anyhow because it's stuck in my brain something fierce. 
> 
> Thank you all for your comments and kudoses and bookmarks and stuff. Your support means the world to me, thank you!

Stiles didn’t move a muscle for what felt like an eternity. He couldn’t break eye-contact either even if he knew that it could be taken as him trying to challenge Peter. At least if Peter was a dog. How aware was he in there? Stiles didn’t know. He just kept staring into the golden eyes of the wolf. He was starting to get a bit restless, it just wasn’t natural to stay this still. But Peter didn’t do anything. He just stared back. Apparently Stiles would have to make the first move. The wolf didn’t seem aggressive. But Stiles didn’t know much about wolves. Well, sure. He had read a fuckton about them the night before but that didn’t really translate to meeting one beneath ones bed. And Peter was a werewolf, not a real wolf so how similar where they? Since most of the lore online seemed to be put out there by humans Stiles couldn’t be sure how accurate any of it was. Especially since they seemed to get all their information by experimentation and that was just icky. Also, way to get the confirmation they wanted. See, werewolves are aggressive beast, they fight back when we hurt them, here is ten ways to kill them. He scowled, Peter hadn’t said anything about hunters. Well, they hadn’t really talked about the fire yet, but surely he would have said if he felt unsafe? But how safe could a werewolf feel without his pack?

A low whine broke Stiles out of his musings, shit, thinking about hunters was not a good thing when he tried to connect to Peter in wolf form. Somehow Peter had backed up even further into the corner. No no no, that was not what Stiles wanted.

“Sorry! I just, I just… I just read some things yesterday and people are terrible! And I hate that we live in a reality where some people hurt others just because they’re different. We’re still all human right? Well, okay, to be fair, you are a wolf at the moment, but you’re still a person.” He clumsily sat down for real, starting to feel the burn in his legs for crouching for so long. He would have absolutely no chance of getting away if Peter attacked but he didn’t think he would. Peter seemed to relax somewhat when Stiles started talking but he stayed in his corner.

“Well, I don’t really know what to do in this situation. Should I leave you alone? But what if you’re stuck as a wolf and need help. Are you stuck? Are you all wolf at the moment?”

Peter waited for a moment and then closed his eyes and let a shudder go through his body. When he opened them again they were the same deep blue eyes he had as a human. He looked impossibly sad for a wolf.

“So you can control how human you are? Am I understanding you right?”

Peter nodded and even crawled a little bit closer to Stiles.

“Do you think you can change back?”

Peter tilted his head like he was thinking about it and then reluctantly nodded a yes. But he stopped and looked like he wanted to back up again.

“But you don’t want to? Is it easier as a wolf? It probably is. Not the easiest for communication but I’m guessing that is part of the appeal.” Stiles would have loved to have the option to retreat from humanity for a while after his mom died. And Peter had probably held back ever since he had gotten to the future, afraid of losing control and get aggressive. He didn’t seem aggressive at all at the moment though, only sad, but Stiles didn’t know how he would react to a stranger. Hell, he wasn’t entirely sure how he would react to his dad either. Peter had spent so much time with Stiles that his scent had to be familiar by now, he hadn’t really spent that much time with his dad. And he would probably smell the guns and that could be bad, right?

A cold pressure against his hand startled Stiles from his thoughts. Astonished he saw that Peter had made his way out from under the bed and now laid down before him. It looked like he tried to be as small as possible and his eyes were back to gold. Stiles really wanted to pet him, reassure him that he was safe and Stiles would take care of him but he felt like that it was too soon. And Peter wasn’t a dog, he would probably resent being treated like one.

“You can stay wolf as long as you want to, but promise not to eat dad, he’s old and probably not very tasty.” Stiles really hoped Peter would be able to control himself even when his dad got back. At least he wasn’t due back before three, maybe later if something happened. Stiles didn’t really like when his dad had morning shifts, well sometimes they were great if he actually got home when he was suppose to, but more often than not he stayed for several extra hours anyway. And then got home exhausted with little to no time for Stiles.

“Hey, you want some breakfast? I think wolves can eat eggs. Can you eat eggs? I made bacon too. But you should probably not drink coffee. Maybe I should make some brownies later, at least some of the coffee would be used that way.”

Peter perked up at the mentioning of food, so Stiles got up on his feet and started to make his way to the kitchen. He forced himself to not look back to see if Peter followed, he didn’t want to scare him away.

~ ~ ~

He was a little bit disappointed that the boy, Stiles, he shouldn’t go too deep into the wolf, remember the names, left without touching him, but even if he didn’t smell afraid he was probably a bit intimidated by his size. But the promise of food made him push the feeling away. At least that was easy as a wolf, always be focusing on the present, that was all that mattered anyway. He got up on his feet and stretched, it had been cramped under the bed. He also did his best to shake out the dust from his fur, he hated feeling dirty. He would probably need to change back for a shower later, or maybe he could get the boy, Stiles, to draw him a bath. He kind of liked bathing as a wolf, not that he had done it much indoors but surely it should be good in a tub too? Not as fun as frolicking in a lake with pack but that wasn’t really an option anymore anyway. Well, except… Stiles was pack. And getting way too far away too. The bond was so fragile that he could barely sense it and clearly the boy hadn’t noticed anything so it was on him to make it stronger. Maybe he could get the boy… Stiles! Damnit, names were important. He did his best to get a little bit more human, it wasn’t even the full moon, he had no excuse. He shook one last time before starting to leave the room. He paused beside the discarded phone that was still shining bright. That couldn’t be good for the battery. Would it survive him picking it up? Well, he wouldn’t go all Lassie on Stiles and make noise to get him to come back so it just would have to be sturdy enough. He could buy a new one if he broke it.

He gently picked it up with his teeth, making sure to grip it on the sides where it looked a bit more robust. He then gently made his way downstairs, careful not to stumble and bit the thing to pieces. He followed his nose to Stiles not in the kitchen but in the living room where he was setting up food on the coffee table. The armchair at the end had been pushed aside making it easy for him to get close. He put the phone down beside Stiles and frowned at it when he saw that he had not managed to save it from getting damp. There were no teeth marks at least.

“You got me my phone?! Thank you! I totally forgot it, and the battery would run out real fast with the flashlight going. Man, dad would be so cross with me if he called and the phone was off again. You’re the best!” Stiles picked it up and wiped it off at his shirt before turning the light off, it seemed to work fine.

Peter preened at the praise. That was right, he was the best, and he could feel the bond so much better when Stiles was right beside him. High on the feeling he pressed against the other boy, hoping for maybe some head scratches. Stiles liked playing with his hair when he was human, surely he would like petting him as a wolf. He didn’t take the bait, instead he gestured wildly at the food.

“I thought we could eat here, because I don’t think you would reach the kitchen table as easy, or well, looking at you now, you are really big… Anyway, I didn’t think you would like eating from the floor so here it is.”

There was a lot of food, way more than there had been any other morning. The plate closest to him was brimming with eggs and bacon and there was a bowl filled with water next to it. It smelled amazing. He dug in with enthusiasm but managed to keep it neat. He didn’t want to come off as aggressive and he wasn’t ravenous enough to not be able to control himself. It was nice to actually eat his fill though, he wasn’t sure why Stiles had changed the routine but he liked it nonetheless. He got through his food before Stiles was even halfway through his, but it didn’t matter. He was full, and with pack and the only thing better would be if he could get some scratches. Maybe…

He took a few last mouthfuls of water before making his way around the table and up the couch. Stiles was sitting at the end, and had stopped eating as he followed him with his eyes. He was trying to look confident as he carefully made his way close to the boy and then curled up beside him with his head in his lap. His scent had just a hint of cinnamon and pinecones over the normal base human scent ingrained with what was probably the chemical scent of his medication. He smelled like home. Hopefully Stiles would get the hint this way. He closed his eyes with a content sigh, it didn’t matter. He was with pack, he had eaten his fill and he could really do with a nap right about now.

~ ~ ~

Stiles froze when Peter gingerly laid down beside him, the heavy weight of his head on his lap. It was an entirely different sensation than when he had done the same thing as a human. For one thing Stiles wasn’t the least bit attracted to him as a wolf so he didn’t feel nervous about it like he had before. He was humbled by the trust wolf Peter showed, he wasn’t sure how far he had suppressed his human side but letting himself be vulnerable like this was huge. He would have thought that Peter would be less trusting as a wolf, not seeking him out like he had so soon.

When Peter closed his eyes Stiles gave himself permission to actually get a good look at him. He had refrained from staring to not scare the wolf away but clearly he wasn’t going anywhere. He was big, way bigger than he had any right to be, how the hell had he been able to fit under the bed? He took up the whole freaking couch. He was also a lot darker than Stiles had expected, his fur was such a dark black that it almost had a blue shine to it. He was sure that if he got Peter properly cleaned and brushed his fur would look like silk. As it was he was itching to actually feel it, and Peter had laid down literally on him. It had to be okay to pet him, right? He should probably ask first, Peter was still in there, he could ask for consent.

“Peter? Is it okay for me to touch you? It kind of feels like it should be okay, but I don’t want you to freak out on me.”

Peter made an annoyed sound and then opened one eye and looked up at him, made a little nod and closed it again. Well, Stiles had no idea how to take that but obviously it was okay to touch. So Stiles did just that, and let himself get lost in the amazing feeling of the soft fur, breakfast completely forgotten.

He had no idea how long he sat there, just petting Peter. It was amazing. Almost even better than playing with human Peter’s hair. For one, there were no risk of confusion, petting the wolf was totally platonic and he didn’t feel at all like he was taking advantage of Peter for it. Not that he was deceiving human Peter when he snuggled with him either, but he wasn’t sure he would be allowed to continue that if Peter knew that he liked him as more than a friend. Was that taking advantage? Fuck, he felt a bit guilty about it so probably. But Peter needed the contact. The scary hunter forums had been full off different torture methods for werewolves, and touch starvation had been one of them. Not the worst by far, but Stiles refused let Peter suffer just because he had a crush. Maybe he could get Peter to turn wolf for movies? It was certainly easier on his conscience.

He got interrupted from his thoughts by the ding that said he had gotten a text. The loud noise made him jump and he glared at it fearing he had disturbed Peter for real, especially when they kept coming. He quickly reached out to get the phone and then turned the sound the hell off, letting out a sigh of relief when Peter didn’t react, sound asleep. He kept one hand on him, not wanting to change a winning concept for letting him rest.

It was from Scott.

<<Stiles!!!!

<< I got her number!!!!!!      

<<What should I do!!

<<HELP!!!!!!

Well, good for him. Stiles felt a brief stab of jealousy, but refused to give in to that feeling. Scott deserved to find somebody who liked him back, just because Stiles fell for unattainable people didn’t mean Scott should be doomed too.

He was just starting an answer when a new onslaught of texts came in.

<<STILES!

<<C’mon man, I know you’re awake!

<<STIIIIIIILES

He gave up his struggle for one-handed texting and just called him instead.

 _“STILES!”_ Stiles winced and held the phone away from his ear, glancing worriedly down at Peter. No reaction.

“Scott! My man, you really need to put a handle on that enthusiasm, it’s way too early for me to handle.”

 _“But I got her number! What do I do? Should I call her? I should call her. She’s perfect, she has the most adorable dimples and her eyes are like dark wells and I love her!”_ Stiles rolled his eyes at Scott’s fawning, how the hell had he managed to get her number when he hadn’t even talked to her as late as yesterday?

“Did you at least get her name with that number? How did you manage that by the way?”

_“She saved me! And her name is Allison, and did I mention that her hair is like silk and she’s super strong and…”_

“Wait what?! She saved you?! What happened?!”

 _“I’m okay, it was nothing really. I just got an attack in the water and maybe it looked like I drowned a little, but_ honest _I would have made it back to shore even without Allison, but she was awesome and saved me anyway.”_

“What the hell Scott! Did you go swimming by yourself? What about your cousins? You can’t go swimming by yourself, it’s not safe!”

Apparently his cousins had had enough of the beach for a bit and hadn’t wanted to go, but Scott had gone anyway because he wanted to have a chance to fawn over Allison. Stiles both cursed and thanked god that Allison was working as a lifeguard during the summer, at least she had been able to save his dumbass brother but he wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for her in the first place. But well, he got both her name and number so Scott felt like it was worth it. And destiny or something. Stiles did manage to steer Scott away from calling her right away, he thought it would be better to send a text to start with. And he did have the best excuse too, thanking her for saving his life and all.

He was starting to get a bit antsy the longer they talked. He really wanted to talk about Peter. He looked the wolf over to see if he was still asleep. It did seem like it, his breath was even and he could even see how his eyes were moving as if he was dreaming. Yeah, he was asleep alright.

“…Scott, I met someone new.” He hated how hesitant he sounded, was he really doing this? Confessing to not being straight over the phone? It felt like his heart was trying to break out of his chest for beating too hard. What if Scott didn’t accept him? What if…

_“Dude! Really?! What’s her name?!”_

“…Peter.”

_“Peter?”_

“Yeah.”

He was met with silence, and it felt like a nerve was exposed. He really, really needed Scott to take this well, Scott was his brother, he wasn’t sure what he would do if he didn’t accept him.

_“What happened to Lydia? I thought you had a plan?”_

Stiles felt his heart break. He answered something generic, trying not to sound as hurt as he was. It would be all right, Scott would think it over and apologize for being a dick. He couldn’t be homophobic, not his Scott. And he hadn’t really said anything bad, not really. Just not anything supportive either. It probably hadn’t been fair of Stiles to just spring it on him like that.

Stiles must have been a bit too rough with his petting of Peter, because he made a hurt sound and buffed his head against Stiles’ stomach to show that he was awake. Stiles quickly ended the call with Scott and focused on his wolf instead. It was easier taking care of others, nobody got disappointed that way.

~ ~ ~

Peter woke up by feeling that something was wrong. His boy was hurt. Pack was hurt. He didn’t move trying to assess the threat. He couldn’t hear anybody else in the house except for a voice on the phone, so it had to be him that said words that hurt. He instantly hated that voice and had to fight his instinct to destroy the offending piece of technology just to get it to stop.

“…Lydia is amazing and brilliant and I will always adore her, but she doesn’t even know I exists! I’m glad…”

He stopped listening, it was crushing to know his boy was hurt by some girl. He pushed his instincts down, he needed to stay thinking. Maybe it was just Scott who had used his infatuation against him. He didn’t care. He would be a better friend and either get Stiles the girl or make him forget all about her. He wasn’t sure yet. He would tone down on the teasing, he didn’t want Stiles to think less of what they were. They were pack, family, and he couldn’t lose Stiles long term for some kind of short term experimentation. But the other boy had to go, nobody got to hurt his boy like this.

He made a whining sound and pressed back into his boy’s stomach, demanding his attention. It worked wonders and soon he had both glorious hands of his boy cradling through his fur. It felt amazing.

“I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” Stiles sounded regretful and his scent was still acrid with hurt. This would not do. He pushed away all sense of dignity and turned over to expose his stomach. He needed to show trust to gain trust, and people liked giving dogs belly rubs. He could endure it from Stiles. He looked up and let his mouth fall open in a grin that was probably a lot more doglike than anything he had ever showed before, his sisters would have teased him mercilessly for his behavior, but it got the job done.

“Belly rubs, really?” Stiles laughed but complied, his scent clearing out to his normal base scent in no time at all. And belly rubs felt amazing. He should probably feel stupid for thinking that he had grown out of getting them.

“I have so many questions for you. I did some research yesterday after you went to bed and man, I found some weird stuff. I hope a lot of it’s just the internet being the internet and people making stuff up because either you are a serious outlier for a werewolf or some folk are out there spreading serious misinformation. Or maybe they are just talking about fiction, I really hope its fiction.”

Well, that didn’t sound good at all, but fiction had always told stories of the big bad wolf. True, they were anchored in reality, there was a reason for hunters in the first place after all, but they always spoke of the lone werewolf. Pack wolves were stable and hunters knew that, but why would they talk about it on the internet for anyone to find in the first place? Hunters shouldn’t want to risk exposure any more than werewolves did, the whole point of hunters were to keep the supernatural under wraps after all. Ugh, he didn’t want to think about it, it was too close to everything that was wrong.

He huffed at Stiles and then, with some serious acrobatics not to topple anything over, got down from the couch and started towards Stiles room. He could really do with a bit of running, and it wouldn’t hurt Stiles either to loosen up a bit. It felt like all Stiles’ interests mainly laid in the stationary kind and that would just not do. He had said that he played lacrosse, and being good at sports was a sure way to get the girl. So Peter would make Stiles good at sports, even if he wasn’t sure he wanted him to get the girl at all. Also, running meant no more talking about sensitive stuff. So he needed to find Stiles running shoes to get the message across, Stiles was a smart boy, he would understand what he was after.

~ ~ ~

Stiles looked as Peter walked away, feeling like he was being reprimanded for his choice of topic. He grimaced, maybe it had been in bad taste to start talking about psychotic hunters, but he really wanted to know how much of it had been real. Peter clearly wasn’t interested at the moment though, so he would drop it. He just didn’t want to think about Scott and how he had sort of ignored that Stiles had came out as something other than straight. And he couldn’t complain about it to Peter, because Peter didn’t need to hear about his crush at the moment. Peter needed comfort and family and Stiles could provide at least one of those things. But not if he drove him away with his inappropriate affections. He sighed and started to clear the remnants of their breakfast away. Well, of Stiles’ breakfast, Peter had cleaned his plate completely. They would need to get more food, Peter ate for at least two normal humans and Stiles wasn’t sure how they would be able to afford it in the long run. Well, Peter did have millions so he could probably contribute if they only asked but it went against something in Stiles to do that.  Peter was their guest, and you didn’t ask guests for money.

Peter was soon back carrying Stiles’ running shoes, how he even wanted to get that close to them with his sensitive nose was more than Stiles could understand, but maybe he smelled things differently. Dogs liked to chew on shoes after all, so maybe they didn’t think they smelled bad.

“Is this a hint that you want me to go running?” He could sort of understand that Peter wanted to run, but why did he want Stiles to go with him? He would only slow him down after all. But Peter grinned and nodded in response, looking mighty pleased with himself.

“Just because I was running when we first met doesn’t mean that I actually like it you know,” Stiles grumbled. Peter just pushed the shoes towards him and looked more demanding than a wolf had any right to look.

“Okay, okay. But I need to change clothes too, and we should probably start with walking because I don’t know about you but if I try to run so soon after eating it will not last long at all.”

Peter nodded enthusiastically and then started to push Stiles towards the stairs up to his room. At least he stayed down as soon as he was sure Stiles actually was going so he didn’t need to try and keep him out of his room as he changed. There was no way that he would let Peter see him almost naked, wolf or no wolf. Not when he was a pillar of perfection and Stiles was… not.

They did have to be a bit sneaky to get Peter to the back of the house. As the backdoor was still broken and nailed shut he had Peter listening for other people and then opened the door as soon as he gave notice that it was clear. He had hardly gotten the door open before Peter had disappeared around the house. And for a brief moment he was worried that he wouldn’t find him when he finally managed to lock the door and followed, but as soon as he got to the back of the house he saw the wolf waiting at the edge if the forest. Right, he had wanted him with him, why would he leave without him when he had gotten him out of the house? Sometimes Stiles worried for stupid stuff.

He followed the wolf into the woods trying to figure out something to talk about. He missed human Peter, because it was kind of hard to be the one to talk all the time, especially when all he could think about were forbidden topics. But they soon came across places where Stiles had done some kind of stupid thing or another and he chose to talk about that. If that meant that he had to talk about Scott too it just had to do, Scott was his brother and he would come around. He just needed to think about it first. And Stiles should know better than to just drop a bomb like that on him unprepared. Scott didn’t  take change very well after all. Not that Stiles felt like he had changed, but apparently Scott did so he would have to adapt a little bit to make it easier on him. Or just drop the subject until he got back and they could talk it out for real. Yeah, that was better. He could wait two weeks to discuss it. It wasn’t like he would do anything about it anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will probably sort out Peters new background story. I just need to figure out something plausible without having him leaving Beacon Hills. Because where is the fun in taking the easy way out? 
> 
> Comments are appreciated, so please do leave one if you have the time. 
> 
> I'm also on [tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/).


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A wayward update appears! A whole lot later than I had hoped but well, real life is stupid and exhausting so I've had no energy to write. 
> 
> Can't really promise a new update before next year either, I have a Steter Secret Santa fic to write and then a whole lot of family stuff to get to. Who the hell let time go so fast? 
> 
> Also, this fic has over 400 subscribers, that is all kinds of humbling, and I don't feel like I deserve you. But that is probably because my confidence is crap at the moment, so I try to ignore that feeling. Anyway. Thank you all for thinking this story is worth reading. It means a lot to me.

Noah didn’t end up calling Simmons after all. Apparently, she was a lot harder to get a hold of than just a simple google search. Tara did get him a number for a bookshop she probably worked in, but that was the best she could do without using official recourses. And Noah didn’t want to come up with an excuse for that at the moment. He could probably try and stick it to the Hale arson investigation, but that could get tricky if they could get Simmons to cooperate on Peter’s new identity. Better to keep the matters separate.

He still needed to talk to Peter about the arson. He didn’t look forward to that, but Laura and Derek had claimed ignorance for any motivation for the fire and that had clearly been a lie so now he had to do the best he could with whatever information Peter had about threats to werewolves. Were there other supernatural creatures that targeted weres? Or had it been humans who were scared of all things different? Or had it been some kind of sick revenge that targeted grownups and kids alike? He kind of hoped for a supernatural threat, at least he could explain the failed investigation on magic that way. It would be better than if he had missed something because he had been in a bad place.

When he called the store he got a hold of some teen who told him that Simmons wasn’t in that day but she could leave a message. He ended up giving her his private cell number and asked to be called at Simmons earliest opportunity. He also told her that it was nothing bad, but he was trying to help a lost young man who had mentioned Simmons name, hoping it would intrigue the woman to actually call back. He didn’t say anything about Hale though, because the family had been murdered, and Noah wasn’t inclined to let anyone know a Hale had resurfaced before he met them. They could have been sacrificed for power for all he knew and he wouldn’t let anyone hurt Peter the same way. So he would meet this Simmons lady first before he let her come anywhere near the werewolf.

~ ~ ~

It was a relief to get out in the forest. He let go a bit more of his human side and just ran on instinct for a while. And everything in him wanted to build his bond to Stiles. Nothing else mattered at the moment, he just needed his pack. It was the most fragile pack bond he had ever experienced, he had had stronger bonds to newborn humans than he had to Stiles at the moment, but it was such a relief to just have a bond again that it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t really feel anything through the bond, just the simple fact that he had an awareness of somebody else was enough. And he was sure he could use the bond to find Stiles at much greater distances than he could use his nose or ears for, so it was security in that too. But most of all, he had someone to belong with again and nothing was more important than that.

He tried to focus on what Stiles was talking about but decided that the words weren’t that important, Stiles just didn’t feel comfortable with silence and since he couldn’t rely on the wolf to say anything he just rambled on. It too was soothing, and he just let the words wash over him, he got the gist of things but didn’t really catch any details. It felt good though that the boy didn’t change how he treated him, he still talked to him like he could understand what he was saying. It was a pleasant surprise since he had grown up learning that humans outside of packs wouldn’t understand that werewolves were still people when they shifted. It was one of the main reasons humans feared them because they didn’t think a shifted werewolf could understand things like caution and kindness. He had learned that to humans a shifted were would be no better than a real wolf, and they killed wolves that got too close to human society.

But then again, he had learned that hunters were better than humans and that they only killed weres who had gone feral to keep both humans and supernaturals safe. Hunters wouldn’t be afraid of stable packs because they knew that werewolves were not that different from them. Dangerous yes, but not animals. He wasn’t so sure that still held true. Because locking a pack in to burn screamed of how it had been before hunters and werewolves had made truce in America. He shuddered and resolutely pushed the thoughts away, he didn’t need to think about that at the moment. He needed to focus on Stiles, on their bond, on his pack.

“…and I broke my toe once over there. It was all Scotts fault, well, technically it was because I stumbled over a root like an idiot, but he was telling a funny story so I was distracted, and it was just my typical luck that I managed to actually break one toe in the process.”

Stiles was giving off mixed signals, he sounded like he told a funny story, and it was a bit funny, except that he had gotten hurt, but he smelled sad and hurt. He smelled like that every time he mentioned Scott and it was starting to really make his teeth ache in a desire to maul the offending boy who was causing his boy so much pain. He didn’t think Stiles would appreciate that though, because as far as he could tell he only talked about Scott. No other friends. He didn’t know if it was because he had only played around in the woods with Scott, or if Scott was actually the only friend he had. Well, no matter what, that had changed now. He would figure out what Scott had done to hurt his boy, and then he would make it better. Show that pack took care of each other.

~ ~ ~

It was way better being out in the woods with a wolf than being alone. For one thing, he was certain that no other predator would bother them, not that mountain lions attacked all that often but they were still scary. And encounters had been getting more common in the last couple of years, probably due to the missing werewolf pack. But at least nobody had died, it was years since the last death by mountain lion happened. It had probably still been really stupid of him to go running in the middle of the night and had he taken a moment to think about it before he just acted on his whim he would probably have stayed home. He was glad he had gone thought, who knew what would have happened to Peter without him after all. And now he had his own wolf protection. It was awesome.

He mostly let Peter lead the way, the wolf had been the one to initiate the activity after all. Stiles just rambled on about things that popped into his head while trying to get over Scott’s earlier reaction. He wasn’t sure he would be able to talk to his dad about it either, and he could definitely not talk to Peter about it. Peter didn’t need to hear about his crush after all. He had enough on his plate as it was. But he had thought about getting his dad alone to get some help to figure out some stuff. But now he wasn’t so sure anymore. Because Scott had not been happy that Stiles was not completely straight, and what if his dad reacted the same? Stiles was sure Scott would get over it, he always did and Stiles would eventually forget that Scott had hurt him but his dad… He couldn’t handle his dad rejecting him, or even worse, be disgusted by him. He had enough bad memories of his dad, the year after his mom died had not been a good year for either of them, and he didn’t need new ones.

Awful as it was, the Hale arson had been good for his relationship with his dad. He would never tell Peter that, he wasn’t exactly proud of it, but his dad getting home smelling of smoke had been a turning point for them. It wasn’t that he had been home more, he had probably worked longer hours than before for the first bit of the investigation, but he stopped drinking so much. And he had hugged Stiles a lot more, and Stiles had stopped feeling like he had lost both his parents. But he couldn’t tell Peter that losing his family had given back Stiles’.

A gentle tug on the bottom of his shirt woke him up from his thoughts, and he realized that he had probably been silent for some time now. Peter did look concerned too, which was not a look he ever thought he would see on a wolf. Not that he had expected to see a real-life wolf in the first place, but still.

“Oh, sorry about that. I just… Well, you know, sometimes I get distracted, can’t really help it. I didn’t walk into a tree at least, and that has happened more than once.”

Peter looked remarkably unimpressed by that answer, and then made a quick turn and ran off from the path and into the woods. Stiles just stared after him, gaping. What did that mean? Had he had enough of Stiles now? But before he had processed what was happening enough to feel abandoned the wolf was back tugging at his shirt again.

“Oh, you want me to follow, is that it?”

Peter gave up a happy bark and was off again. Apparently, they were running now. Away from the at least somewhat smooth path. Like that wasn’t a disaster ready to happen. Stiles cursed but followed the wolf. He had agreed to go running after all, he had just not thought he would have to battle bushes to do so.

~ ~ ~

Noah did not have a good day at work. It was all small stuff, his printer stopped working, whoever had done the coffee had made it way too weak, a young homeless woman he had let go with a warning half a year before was back, but this time under arrest for drugs and not prostitution. He had been certain she had been clean, he had even gotten her into a shelter but apparently, it had not been enough. He felt guilty for that, maybe she would have been better off if he had just arrested her in the first place.

He absolutely abhorred drugs, especially the harder stuff, and he hated how they had managed to get a foothold in Beacon Hills. It seemed like for every meth lab he shut down another one popped up in its place and he just didn’t have the recourses to do anything about it. There were too many abandoned buildings, not to mention how easy it was to hide in the preserve.  And the majority of people arrested for drug-related crimes were the users, and it didn’t matter how many of them they put away. There were always new users. So he didn’t get any real satisfaction in them arresting yet another young person who used drugs to feel a bit better with their messed up situation.

His shift was almost over when his phone rang. He was a bit startled when he saw that it was Melissa.

“Melissa, is everything okay?” She almost never called him when she was visiting family, it was odd.

_“Ah, yes. Everything is good here,”_ she sounded really uncertain, _“how is everything with you and Stiles? Did anything happen recently?”_ Well shit, someone had told her something about Peter. Christ, this town was way too much into each other’s business if they actually called people on vacation to gossip.

“With us? All is fine with us. Well, Stiles has gotten a new friend who is in a bit of a rough patch, but I’m sure everything will work out fine with that.” Surely that wasn’t saying too much?

_“Oh. And you’re fine with that? I know you grew up in a… conservative home.”_

“What has that to do with anything? Of course I’m fine with my son wanting to help someone in need.” Noah was confused, why would Melissa think he would have a problem with helping Peter because if his dipshit dad?

_“A friend, yes. Of course he would help a friend. And you are absolutely sure you have no problems with that?”_

“Melissa, what are you trying to ask me here?”

_“Just… Scott was confused over something Stiles said, and I think he may have reacted a bit… clumsy, and I just wanted to make sure that you were fine with everything. Since you know… you grew up…”_

“In a conservative home yes. I know, I was there. And I would never treat my son as my father treated me. How can you even think that?” He was actually quite offended over that accusation. Like he would ever hurt his kid. He had never lifted a hand against his boy, not even when he was way too deep into the bottle when Claudia passed away. Why the hell would Melissa think he would do anything against Stiles because of Peter?

_“Good, that’s… good. I was just making sure. I have to go, do give Stiles my best will you?”_

“Will do, take care.” He stared at the phone as he hung up. What was that?

He thought the conversation over, Melissa had learned something about Peter from Scott, who had gotten confused? How could Scott get confused over Stiles having a new friend? Was he jealous? Or… Had Stiles told him something else? Like that he liked Peter? Oh, that made so much more sense. And Scott had told Melissa, who had not wanted to say anything to Noah if he didn’t know because she wasn’t sure how he would react because if his dad. Well, it wasn’t an unreasonable assumption to make, but he didn’t even know if his dad was homophobic. He was an abusive alcoholic but he never called him homophobic names. Not that that meant anything, and Noah was sure as hell glad that he had never felt anything like that for a guy because he wasn’t sure how he would have coped with being anything other than straight on top of surviving his dad. It would probably have made his time in the army a lot worse too.

He didn’t know he felt about Melissa thinking he could be homophobic though, and thinking he could possibly hurt his son over that. Did Stiles believe the same thing? How was he supposed to fix that? He didn’t want to say anything before Stiles told him, but he needed to make sure that Stiles knew that he _could_ tell him. And how was he supposed to do that with a werewolf in the house? The same werewolf that Stiles probably had a crush on? They really needed to get Peter sorted out because as it stood now it could get really messy if things didn’t work out. He was sure Peter liked Stiles back, but he wasn’t sure he was in a place where he would act on it. And he didn’t want Stiles to feel rejected once more. It was bad enough with Lydia.

He sighed, the best would be if Laura moved back to town, took over the care of Peter without making him leave. But he wasn’t sure that would happen, especially since he didn’t have any way to contact her directly. Maybe Peter did, he had found stuff for him left from his family after all, and wasn’t that a whole different kind of a clusterfuck. How the hell could the Hales have a whole vault under the high school without anyone noticing? And why did they have it in the first place? Sure, a secret vault made sense for secret werewolves, but under the school? How could they possibly have had easy access to that? Well, the ones who had been in school would probably have no issue getting in, but adults running around the school carrying stuff to and from the vault? That just seemed really inconvenient.

He was starting to get a headache, and he really wanted a drink. Maybe he could indulge in a whiskey when he got home. He felt like he deserved one right about now, but wasn’t sure he could afford one. And he wasn’t sure he would be able to stop at just one either, so maybe it was better to stick with beer. And steak, or maybe a burger. No, he deserved some prime meat, and as he had a werewolf in the house he was sure he would be able to get away with it. Yes, he would stop by the store and get everything he needed to start up the grill and he wouldn’t give Stiles a change so object. Because he needed to indulge in something, and food was a safer bet than booze. 

~ ~ ~

He was feeling at peace being lazy in the shadow of a tree as his boy read some comic or other. Their excursion in the woods had been successful, at least from the wolfs point of view. Taking them running away from the path had done wonders for the boy's scent. He had no longer smelled sad or hurt, and there had been laughter under the curses he had flung at him. He had also noticed that his boy was really clumsy. But that had been kind of fun, and good for their bond. Nothing strengthened a bond as much as helping each other and physical contact and him rescuing his boy from falling flat on his face satisfied both. Mostly because his most effective way of rescue was letting the boy fall on him instead, which inevitably lead to either hugging or wrestling, both equally fun.

It had been good running with his boy. It almost distracted him enough from noticing how different the woods felt. He could feel the absence of a thriving pack, everything was just a little bit less. And there was absolutely no supernatural presence at all. Neither good nor bad. It was like the whole forest was asleep. Well, except for the normal wildlife, there was plenty of that, just no magical. Maybe it was for the best, who knew what could have taken over the territory after the Hales had vanished. He should probably be grateful that something was keeping everything at bay. He was in no shape to fight for the right to stay, and there was nothing that could make him leave now. Not without his boy. He still desperately wanted an alpha, but not enough to lose his connection to Stiles. So he had immersed himself in the joy of running with pack, of playing with pack. So he had been disappointed when they had to go back, but the boy had been exhausted and they were both getting hungry so going to the house for food had been necessary.

He had contemplated changing back for lunch, but he didn’t want to, and the boy had not seemed bothered by preparing food he would like so he had stayed in his animal form. And now he was more than satisfied to just bask in the presence of his pack doing nothing. He would have preferred to snuggle closer, but it was too hot so he had to be satisfied with just his boy having one hand on him slowly stroking his fur.

It felt divine.

He kind of wanted to roll over and offer up his stomach, but he had already indulged in that once and he didn’t want to make a more of a fool of himself at the moment. Especially since his boy was actually calm for a change. No hint of the earlier sadness and hurt in his scent and his heartbeat was lower than it had ever been awake. No, he was content just lying there, feeling his pack, with one ear out for intruders. But the closest other humans he could hear was the neighbors two houses away and there was no risk they could be seen by them. And even if they were spotted they would just think that he was a large dog, no one would think wolf without getting close. Not when he was just lying there, getting petted by his human. No, they were safe, and his boy was calm, and he had lost a lot of his excess energy when they were running in the woods. Maybe… Maybe he would take a nap.

Yes. A nap… a nap sounded like exactly what he wanted to do.

~ ~ ~

Noah was humming along to the radio as he pulled up in front of the house. The day had gotten a lot better as soon as he got out of work. No more stupid small stuff to annoy him, or troubled young ones to make him depressed. And he may have indulged a bit when he had brought food, and chocolate always did make things better. He had made sure to hide the evidence though because it would be a discussion just to get away with the food he had bought.

He had had time to stop by the hardware store he preferred for a new door too and even managed to get out without needing to tell why he needed a new door. He couldn’t very well tell them the truth, and the alternative was a failed break-in, which was just not likely. No criminal worth their salt would try and steal from the sheriff after all. He had pretended to be in a hurry just to get out of there as quickly as possible after making sure they would deliver everything the following day. He had paid extra for that but felt that it was worth it since he couldn’t transport the door in the cruiser and he did want to get it fixed as soon as possible. He didn’t like having one of the exits nailed shut like it was now, it wasn’t safe in case of a fire. Well, they had windows but Stiles was accident prone enough without trying to climb out of windows. Who knew what kind of injuries he would sustain if he tried that in a hurry.

He didn’t find either of the boys inside, so he managed to put the groceries away without his nosy son scolding him for what he had bought. He did curse a bit when he went to set up the grill. He should have thought about the back door being broken when he planned this, it would be exceptionally annoying going around the house to get things from the kitchen. But he wanted steak and he was way better at handling the grill than the stove so it would have to do. He would just have Stiles and Peter running for stuff if he could just locate them.

He did find his son sitting under his favorite tree, together with a big ass dog. Wait. That was not a dog. Was that a wolf? He felt his pulse rush and for a brief moment he cursed that he had put his gun away when he got home but he forced himself to calm down. Stiles didn’t look worried at all, he actually looked relaxed and happy, so he shouldn’t panic. Peter had said something about shifting, so it had to be Peter? Right? That was freaky enough, but a way better alternative than his son getting familiar with wildlife.

He wasn’t sure how to make himself know though, because Peter was clearly asleep, and way too close to Stiles for Noah not to be concern what could happen if he got startled. How in control was he as a wolf? He had said that he didn’t want to shift in case he lost it, so why had he? And why hadn’t Stiles called him? Or at least sent a text to warn him. He would have to lay down some ground rules because this was not acceptable. He needed to know that his son was safe, and he didn’t know how to keep him that with all this supernatural crap.

Freaking werewolves.

Well, maybe it was best to just continue without saying anything. Stiles would notice him soon enough and would hopefully manage to wake Peter up without him getting aggressive. But he would get his gun the next trip indoors.

Just in case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm still on [tumblr](https://feathersareathing.tumblr.com/), but I'm not sure I want to stay there. It's kind of a mess at the moment, and well. I don't want to support a site that more or less throws a lot of their loyal userbase under the bus. But I will stay at least until December 21, because it would be rude to leave before the gift exchange is over. I did get a [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/thingwithfeathers) account during their kickstarter, but they seem to be a mess too so well. Thank god for AO3. 
> 
> Anyhow, unrelated to that, I could really use some kind words at the moment, so if you have any to spare do please send them my way.


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